On February 13, the Ninth Circuit heard Peta Lindsay & Peace & Freedom Party v Debra Bowen, 13-15085. The issue is whether the California Secretary of State had authority to remove Peta Lindsay from the Peace & Freedom Party’s presidential primary ballot in 2012. Lindsay admittedly was 27 years old, and Article II of the U.S. Constitution says presidents must be at least 35.

The hearing was recorded and anyone with internet access can listen, beginning on Friday, February 14. www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media. The hearing lasted approximately 15 minutes and was the first case argued when court opened at 9:30 a.m.

Section 6720 of the California Election Code says, “The Secretary of State shall place the name of a candidate upon the Peace & Freedom Party presidential preference ballot when the Secretary of State has determined that the candidate is generally advocated for or recognized throughout the United States or California as actively seeking the presidential nomination of the Peace and Freedom Party or the national party with which the Peace and Freedom Party is affiliated.” One of the three judges asked about the term “shall”. The attorney for the Secretary of State said there are judicial opinions from California state court which say that “shall” does not necessarily mean the public official must carry out the act described.

One judge asked, “What statutes authorize deletion?” and the state’s response was “The Election Code and the Government Code as a whole.” One judge asked, “Suppose the Secretary of State is a birther?” There was discussion of the various lawsuits over whether President Obama and John McCain meet the constitutional qualifications. The three judges on the case are Alex Kozinski, Diarmuid O’Scannlain, and Mary Murguia.

Last year the Ninth Circuit struck down Montana’s law making it a crime for a qualified political party to endorse or oppose a candidate in a judicial election. In November 2013, Montana asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse that decision. The case is Fox v Sanders County Republican Party, 13-839.

On January 15, the Republican Party, which had won the case in the lower court, waived its right to respond to Montana’s cert petition. On January 29 the U.S. Supreme Court set a conference date of February 21 for this case, to decide whether to hear it or not.

It has now been almost a month since the Republican Party waived its right to respond. Normally, when the side that won in the lower court waives its right to respond to a cert petition, if the U.S. Supreme Court is seriously thinking about taking the case, it asks for a response. Because it has been so long since the Republican Party waived its right to respond, and because the Court hasn’t asked the Republican Party to respond, that is a signal that the Court isn’t interested in hearing the case.

On February 12, a Tampa Bay Times/WUSF Public Media poll for the March 11 special election in Florida’s 13th district was released. See this story. After “leaners” are included, the results are: Democratic Alex Sink 42%, Republican David Jolly 35%, Libertarian Lucas Overby 4%, other or undecided 19%. There is also a declared write-in candidate in the race, Michael Levinson, and the story mentions him but does not list any poll result for him.

The poll shows that Overby gets support from 9% of voters who describe themselves as independents. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.