The three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, who will hear Gary Johnson v Commission on Presidential Debates will be Laurence Silberman, Janice Rogers Brown, and Cornelia T. Pillard. The hearing is Friday, April 21, at 9:30 a.m.

This is the case filed by Gary Johnson and Jill Stein that argues that the Commission on Presidential Debates has been violating federal anti-trust laws. It should not be confused with Level the Playing Field v FEC.

Silberman is a Reagan appointee. Despite his long service, he has never before had a case involving minor parties or independent candidates. Here is his wikipedia page. Brown is a Bush Jr. appointee who ruled for the government in the case involving petitioning on interior post office sidewalks, although she wrote that the post office’s policy made little sense. Pillard is an Obama appointee.

On April 13, the petitioning candidates who want to be on the ballot for the Montana special U.S. House election filed a brief in the Ninth Circuit. The brief documents that one of the candidates, Thomas Breck of the Green Party, did collect over 400 valid signatures (the counties checked them) on Sunday, April 9, the very day after the U.S. District Court said 400 signatures would be enough.

The Ninth Circuit brief points out how unfair it is for the U.S. District Court to have set the requirement at 400, after it was too late to get the 400 signatures. The case is Breck v Stapleton, 17-35310. A decision could come down at any time. There will be no oral argument in the Ninth Circuit.

On April 13, the Kentucky Libertarian Party and Kentucky Constitution Party filed this reply brief in the U.S. Supreme Court. The case is Libertarian Party of Kentucky v Grimes, 16-1034. The issue is Kentucky’s restrictive definition of “political party.” The only way a group can become qualified is to poll a certain share of the vote for President. The only other state with that characteristic is Washington.