A U.S. District Court in San Francisco will hear Peace & Freedom Party v Weber on Friday, August 22. This is the California minor party lawsuit against the top-two system.
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On April 22, the Fourth Circuit issued an order in Griffin v North Carolina State Board of Elections, 25-1397, the case over the disputed election of November 2024 for Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. By a vote of 2-1, the majority stayed the process of asking overseas voters from furnishing copies of their photo ID. The order is by Judge Paul V. Niemeyer, a Bush Sr. appointee, and is also signed by Judge Toby J. Heytens, a Biden appointee. Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum, a Trump appointee, dissented, although he said he is expressing no opinion about the ultimate merits of the case.
On April 21, the Arkansas League of Women Voters filed a federal lawsuit to overturn many new restrictions on the initiative process, as well as some old restrictions. League of Women Voters of Arkansas v Jester, w.d., 5:25cv-5087.
The lawsuit attacks the in-state residency requirement for initiative petitioners, the new law that tells petitioners that they can’t accept a signature until the petitioner has seen the signer’s photo ID; the new law that says the names and addresses of paid circulators must be submitted before they can work and this information will be a public record; the new law that requires circulators to read the entire description of the initiative to anyone who is approached; the new law that requires circulators to tell everyone they approach that “petition fraud” is a crime; and many other restrictions.
The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Timothy L. Brooks, an Obama appointee.
On April 22, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the stay in Brown v Yost, 24A970. This is a win for the initiative process. The issue is whether Ohio violates the First Amendment by stifling initiatives before they can begin. Ohio says the petition can’t proceed until the Attorney General approves the description of the initiative that will be printed on the petition. The U.S. District Court had enjoined the system after the Ohio Attorney General rejected eight versions of the language, which wasted so much time, the initiative couldn’t be circulated.
Then the U.S.. District Court had stayed its own order. But recently, the Sixth Circuit voted 2-1 to dismiss the stay. But then on April 10 the U.S. Supreme Court had temporarily restored the stay. Now, today, the Court has ended the stay. The vote was 6-3. Justice Sam Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Brett Kavanaugh would have kept the stay in place.
Maine currently uses Ranked Choice Voting in primaries for all partisan office, and general elections for federal office. LD 1666 has been introduced to use Ranked Choice Voting for state office general elections. See this story.