The Ninth Circuit will hear Arizona Green Party v Reagan, 14-15976, on Wednesday, May 11, at 9 a.m., in San Francisco. This is the case that challenges Arizona’s February deadline for petitions to establish a political party. The Arizona primary is in August. The case arose around the 2014 election, when the Green Party submitted all its signatures to be a qualified party a few weeks late, because they couldn’t get the job done by the deadline. Even though the party brought all its completed petition sheets into court, to show the judge that they had done the job, U.S. District Court Judge Neil Wake said the party hadn’t presented any evidence that the February petition deadline is burdensome.

Judge Wake did say that the party could use those petitions to qualify for 2016, so the effort wasn’t entirely wasted. The Green Party is on the ballot in Arizona now.

The United States government response brief in Tuaua v U.S., 15-981 in the U.S. Supreme Court, was due on March 2. However, the government asked for, and received, an extension of time to April 1. This is the case about the meaning of this part of the Fourteenth Amendment: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” The voters who brought the case were born in American Samoa and argue that they should be deemed citizens, and should not need to go through the naturalization process. Most of the voters who brought the case live in one of the fifty states, but they can’t vote because they haven’t used the naturalization process. Famous attorney Ted Olson represents them.

According to this statement on the web page of the supporters of the case, seven amicus curiae briefs are being filed in the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court already shows that the amicus briefs of the Puerto Rican Bar Association, some scholars of constitutional law, and the League of United Latin American Citizens, have been filed. Thanks to Rick Hasen for that link.

On March 2, an Illinois state trial court dismissed a lawsuit challenging the qualifications and ballot status of Ted Cruz in the upcoming Illinois presidential primary. The plaintiff failed to serve Cruz himself; he only served attorneys for Cruz. See this story.