On August 3, Mark Everson filed a formal Complaint with the Federal Election Commission, asking that the FEC rule that Fox News is violating federal regulations by excluding him from the second-tier Republican presidential debate set for August 6. Everson was the IRS Commissioner between 2003 and 2007, and also served in high federal executive office during the Reagan administration. He has been campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination since March 2015. He is one of the 18 candidates listed in the Republican National Committee’s straw poll. Yet he is the only one of the 18 who has not been invited into either one of the Fox August 6 debates.

Fox News originally said candidates had to be at 1% in the polls to join the second-tier debate, but Fox eliminated that rule on July 27. That left no objective criteria for that debate. Yet federal regulations say debate sponsors must use “pre-established objective criteria.” See this story on Hot Air.

The Green Party voted on August 2 over the location of its 2016 presidential convention. Houston was chosen. The party has never before had a presidential convention in the South. Toledo was the runner-up. The dates will be August 4-7, the latest presidential convention of any party in 2016, so far at least.

Past Green Party presidential conventions have been: 1996 Los Angeles; 2000 Denver; 2004 Milwaukee; 2008 Chicago; 2012 Baltimore.

Next term the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Evenwel v Abbott, 14-940. The Texas voters who filed the case argue that states must draw U.S. House and legislative districts based on the number of eligible voters, not population. Here is the opening brief filed by those voters. The “summary of argument” starts on page 14.

The core argument these voters make is that the Constitution requires states to treat all voters equally. In some districts in Texas, the number of eligible voters is far larger than in other districts. This is not only because some, but not all, parts of Texas have large numbers of alien residents. It is also because some parts of Texas have a higher density of children than other parts of Texas.

The other side’s brief is due September 18. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.