On August 17, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila heard Koller v Brown, the case that challenges the California law telling presidential electors that they must vote in the Electoral College for the presidential candidate who carried California. The state argued that the case is moot, because the 2016 election is over. The case is Vinz Koller v Brown, n.d., 5:16cv-7069.
Courts have ruled that cases capable of repetition, in which circumstances makes it impossible to adjudicate the case in a short period of time, are not moot. For example, women who challenge abortion restrictions and who are pregnant when filing the case cannot lose the case on the grounds that the pregnancy is over while the case is still proceeding and therefore it is moot. The U.S. Supreme Court has also applied that logic to ballot access constitutional challenges. Frequently the election is over when the court decides the ballot access issue. So, attorneys for the California 2016 Democratic presidential elector who filed the case argued that this case also fits the mootness exception. Judge Davila seemed open to that argument. The hearing lasted almost an hour. A decision on whether the case should be dismissed will be released in the coming weeks.