Hearings Coming Up in “Faithless” Presidential Elector Lawsuits

U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila, an Obama appointee, will hear Keller v Brown on August 17 in San Jose at 9 a.m. Keller v Brown challenges the California law that tells presidential electors that when the electoral college meets in December, they must vote for the candidate who got the most popular votes in November.

The Eighth Circuit will hold an oral argument in Abdurrahman v Dayton sometime this summer, likely June or July. The case challenges the Minnesota law that says if a presidential elector fails to vote for the candidate who got the most popular votes in Minnesota (aka a “faithless elector“), that elector is deemed to have resigned and will be replaced by the other presidential electors who are present at the meeting. The issue for the Eighth Circuit is whether the U.S. District Court erred when it upheld the law without allowing for evidence or a trial.

Scotusblog Features Kentucky Libertarian Party Filing in its “Petition of the Day” Feature

Scotusblog is the leading news source for U.S. Supreme Court news and analysis. When the court is sitting, Scotusblog regularly features cert petitions that seem to have unusual chances for being accepted. On May 3, Scotusblog chose the Kentucky Libertarian cert petition for its coverage. See here.

Kentucky is one of only two states in which a group can never be a qualified party unless it makes a certain showing in a presidential election. The Libertarian and Constitution Parties challenges Kentucky for making the pathway to qualified party status so limited. In many states, there are ballot-qualified parties that only exist in that one state and which don’t even participate in the presidential election. The Court will consider whether to hear this case at its May 11 conference, although no news from that conference will be available until May 15. Thanks to Mark Brown and Oliver Hall for the link.

Reply Brief Filed in Georgia Lawsuit Over Whether Voters Can Still Register to Vote in Special U.S. House Election

Georgia holds a special run-off on June 20 for U.S. House. A U.S. District Court is currently considering whether Georgia must let voters register to vote for that run-off during May. Here is the reply brief filed by the voters’ rights organizations that brought the lawsuit. Georgia State Conference of the NAACP v State, n.d., 1:17cv-1397. The lawsuit is based on the federal law that does not permit states to close off the registration deadline earlier than 30 days before a federal election or runoff. The hearing is Thursday, May 4, at 2 p.m.

Read the Transcript in Wilding v Democratic National Committee Oral Argument of April 25

Independent Voters Network has a copy of the transcript in Wilding v Democratic National Committee Services, s.d. Fl., 0:16cv-61511. The oral argument was held for three hours on the afternoon of April 25 before U.S. District Court Judge William Zloch, a Reagan appointee. The Democratic National Committee argued that the case should be dismissed. The case had been filed in June 2016 by supporters of Bernie Sanders. Most of them had donated money to the Democratic Party, and they ask for damages, on the grounds that the party broke its own rules that required the party to be neutral between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

At the end of the transcript, one finds a few brief remarks by Judge Zloch. He said, “This is a very interesting case, to say the least…Democracy demands the truth so people can make intelligent decisions.” Early in the transcript, he also admonished some spectators in the courtroom to stop distracting him. He said they were making exaggerated gestures showing support for the plaintiffs and that they should cease doing that.