On July 9, the Secretary of State of South Dakota asked a U.S. District Court to dismiss the ballot access case that had been filed by the Libertarian and Constitution Parties on June 15. The case is Libertarian Party of S.D. v Krebs, 4:15cv-4111. The lawsuit challenges the March 1 petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties. The state says that because the voters will be voting on whether to repeal that deadline, and the other parts of SB 69, the case should be dismissed, because no one can predict whether the law will be repealed.

The response of the political parties is due July 30, 2015.

California City News has this op-ed, written by me, about the effect the California top-two system has had on minor parties.

On July 9, the Florida Supreme Court issued an opinion in League of Women Voters of Florida v Detzner, SC14-1905. The order says the state’s U.S. House district boundaries for eight districts violate the State Constitution. The order says the legislature must quickly redraw the boundaries of these eight districts:

5, Corrine Brown
13, David W. Jolly
14, Kathy Castor
21, Theodore E. Deutch
22, Lois Frankel
25, Mario Diaz-Balart
26, Carlos Curbelo
27, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Of course, new boundaries for this districts will mean new boundaries for next-door districts, so probably a majority of the 27 districts will need new boundaries. The vote was 5-2. The State Constitution says that the legislature must not be influenced by considerations of partisanship. The State Supreme Court found that the Republican majority in the legislature had violated that provision of the State Constitution. The lower state court had also invalidated the plan, but the lower court had only ruled that two particular districts needed to be redrawn.