On February 24, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s New York ballot access case. Kennedy v Cartwright, 24-646. New York had kept Kennedy off the ballot because the state courts believed that the residence address on his paperwork was inaccurate. Before the election, the U.S. Supreme Court denied him injunctive relief. He kept the case alive and asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that it violates Article Two to require a presidential candidates to place their residence address on candidacy paperwork.

Kennedy’s cert petition has an appendix which shows that other states besides New York also require the residence address. The appendix has copies of independent presidential paperwork. See it here.

On February 28, the Democratic Party sued President Trump, and the Federal Election Commission, to obtain a judgment that the Commission cannot be compelled to follow Trump’s February 18 Executive Order. His Order says “the President and the Attorney General’s opinions on questions of law are controlling on all employees” of the federal government. But the FEC was set up to be independent and to make its own independent judgments about election law.

Here is the Complaint in Democratic National Committee v Trump and FEC, U.S. District Court, D.C., 1:25cv-587.

It would have been appropriate for the Democratic Party to have reached out to any political parties other than the Republican Party, and invited them to join the lawsuit, but apparently that didn’t occur to the Democratic Party’s attorneys.

On February 25, the North Dakota House rejected three bills that would have made it more difficult for candidates to get on a primary ballot. Currently North Dakota primary candidates go on the ballot automatically if they have substantial support at a party endorsements meeting. Candidates who didn’t show support at a party meeting could still get on the primary ballot with a petition.

HB 1446, which would have required all primary candidates to submit signatures, was defeated 58-32.

Two other bills that would have ended the petition alternative were also defeated overwhelmingly. See this story.