On November 17, the Tucson city council voted to ask the Ninth Circuit to rehear the case over the city’s system for electing councilmembers. Tucson holds partisan elections for city council. The Tucson system has partisan primaries in districts, and then the nominees run in the general election at-large. The Ninth Circuit ruled 2-1 that the system violates Equal Protection. See this story.
Ohio Governor John Kasich, a Republican presidential candidate, has asked NBC for twelve minutes of free time on the entire national network. Also, candidates Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, and George Pataki have asked NBC for equal time in some markets. This is to match the free time NBC gave Donald Trump when he was on Saturday Night Life. See this story. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
On November 17, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal withdrew from the Republican presidential race. Presumably he will now contact state officials where he has been put on the presidential primary ballot already, and withdraw. See this story.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is married to Ginni Thomas. Ginni Thomas has just made and posted a two-minute video endorsing Ted Cruz for President. See it here. Thanks to HowAppealing for the link.
The U.S. Supreme Court makes many election law decisions.
The Fourth Circuit has set a briefing schedule in Sarvis v Alcorn, 15-1162. The issue is the Virginia law that says the nominees of qualified parties always appear first on the general election ballot, ahead of independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties. The U.S. District Court had acknowledged that being list first on the ballot does help candidates. But the Court said the U.S. Constitution permits states to favor the two major party nominees.
The Sarvis brief is due December 22, 2015. The state’s response is due January 25, 2016.
