On February 20, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion in Learning Resources, Inc. v Trump. While this is not an election law decision, Law Professor Rick Hasen writes here that the decision has implications for election law as well.
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On February 19, the same Virginia trial court judge who had blocked the Virginia ballot measure on redistricting again blocked it. Republican National Committee v Koski, Tazewell Co. Circuit Court, CL26-266. Here is the 7-page opinion. The judge used the same rationale as he had the first time. He believes that “election day” doesn’t refer to one particular day, but the entire range of the early voting period. The legislature had passed the bill for a redistricting ballot measure before November 4, 2025, but after the first day of early voting for the November 2025 election.
On February 19, the Hawaii House Judiciary Committee defeated HB 1716, which would have said that parties that have been on the ballot for at least 20 years don’t need to meet the vote test in order to remain on the ballot. The Attorney General had expressed the opinion that the bill might be unconstitutional, because it would discriminate against new parties, relative to old parties.
Here is the Attorney General’s memo.
If the bill had passed, the beneficiaries would have been the Libertarian and Green Parties.
Minnesota Representative Drew Roach (R-Farmington) has introduced HF 3534. It would dramatically ease ballot access for minor parties. Minnesota already has two categories of qualified party in its law, major and minor. But, perversely, a qualified minor party is not on the ballot, and all its nominees must use the independent petition (which permits a party label). The only advantage to being a qualified minor party is for campaign finance. A qualified minor party is one that polled 1% for any statewide office at the last election.
The bill would expand the usefulness of the minor party provision, so that minor parties would be on the general election ballot automatically. They would choose their nominees in conventions or other types of party meetings. Here is the bill text.
Other states that have two tiers of qualified party (both of which are on the ballot, but the lower tier parties nominate by convention) are Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia (but only for statewide office), Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico (for President only), Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Bob Bird, a former chair of the Alaskan Independence Party, is critical of the decision of last month to dissolve the party. See this story. It is true that election officials in other states, when also faced with a call by state party leaders to dissolve a party, have responded that they have no legal authority to do that. Some states have even passed laws regulating what to do when state party leaders want to dissolve a party.
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