Nebraska has a county distribution requirement for statewide initiatives. Last year a U.S. District Court had struck it down. But on July 14, 2016, the Eighth Circuit had ruled that the lower court ruling is void because the plaintiff, Kent Bernbeck, doesn’t have standing. Bernbeck is a frequent sponsor of Nebraska initiatives, both local and state.

Bernbeck asked the Eighth Circuit for a rehearing, arguing he does have standing. But on September 7, the Eighth Circuit fulltime judges voted 7-3 that he does not have standing.

On September 28, the First Circuit agreed with the U.S. District Court, that New Hampshire’s law, making it a crime for a voter in the voting booth to photograph his or her voted ballot and then show that picture to anyone else, violates the First Amendment. Here is the decision in Rideout v Gardner. Thanks to Howard Bashman for the link.

A mediation conference was held on September 27 in the Ninth Circuit’s election law case, Soltysik v Padilla, 16-55758. The issue is the California law that lets some candidates for Congress and partisan state office have their party affiliation on the ballot, but bars this for other candidates for the same offices. The U.S. District Court had upheld the law. The plaintiffs are registered Socialists, but when they run for office, their party label on the ballot is “party preference: none.”

On September 29, both sides told the Ninth Circuit clerk that mediation had failed, so now the case will proceed to be briefed in the Ninth Circuit.