On September 9, 2015, the Seventh Circuit struck down an Indiana election law for judicial elections in Indianapolis. The law said no party was permitted to nominate for more than half the seats. Trial court judges in Indianapolis are elected in partisan elections. Because there were almost never any minor party or independent candidates for those judicial posts, the voters had no real choice in November. The Democratic Party ran for half the seats, and the Republican Party did likewise, so voters had no realistic input.

The state has decided not to ask for U.S. Supreme Court review, so the decision will stand. The decision is useful for ballot access challenges because it says that giving voters no choice in the general election is “a severe burden.” The case is Common Cause of Indiana v Individual Members of the Indiana Election Commission, 14-3300.

It is somewhat likely that the legislature will now abolish judicial elections in Indianapolis. In most other parts of Indiana there are no such judicial elections.

On December 9, the Maine Secretary of State said the Libertarian Party is not a qualified party. The law says a new party can qualify by having at least 5,000 registered members by December 1 of the odd year before the election. The Libertarian Party submitted approximately 6,400 registration cards, but election officials only processed 4,489 by December 1. There are enough unprocessed registration cards to put the party over the 5,000 requirement, but the Secretary of State says they don’t count because they haven’t yet been processed.

It is extremely likely that the December 1 deadline is unconstitutionally early. Courts have struck down early petition or registration deadlines for a group to qualify for party status in Alabama (April was too early), Arkansas (January was too early), California (January was too early), Idaho (May was too early), Nebraska (February was too early), Nevada (April was too early), New Mexico (April was too early), Ohio (November of the year before the election was too early), South Dakota (February was too early), and Tennessee (April was too early). All of those were procedures to qualify a party, not procedures for candidates.

In addition, deadlines for procedures for candidates to qualify for the general election ballot were struck down in many other states, including Maine. A US District Court invalidated Maine’s non-presidential independent candidate petition deadline of April in Stoddard v Quinn, in 1984.

The earliest deadline for a new party to qualify that was upheld was the Alabama March deadline, but the reason it was upheld was that Alabama had its primary for all office in March. In the past, when Alabama had a June primary for all office, the April petition deadline was held unconstitutional. The Maine primary is June 14, 2016.

According to this story, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will meet with any U.S. presidential candidate who visits Israel and requests a meeting with him. Donald Trump will be meeting Netanyahu in Israel on December 28.