On January 20, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Williams-Yulee v The Florida Bar, 13-1499. The issue is whether judicial candidates have a First Amendment right to ask for campaign donations. Here is the 65-page transcript of the argument. Thanks to Scotusblog for the link.
The Ninth Circuit will hear oral argument in Arizona Libertarian Party v Bennett on January 29, Thursday, in Tucson. This is the case in which the Arizona Libertarian and Green Parties challenge the voter registration form. In the section where applicants choose a party or independent status, the form lists the two largest political parties, each with their own checkbox. Then there is a third checkbox, which is labeled “other” and has a blank line that is less than an inch long. The three judges will be A. Wallace Tashima, M. Margaret McKeown, and Marsha Berzon. All three are Clinton appointees.
The parties argue that the form should list all the ballot-qualified parties, not just the two largest, which, of course, are the Republican and Democratic Parties. It is especially important that the form list the qualified minor parties, because the only way they remain ballot-qualified is by having registration of at least two-thirds of 1%. The law also lets parties stay on if they get 5% for President and Governor, but the registration alternative is what keeps the Libertarians on the ballot. The Green Party has never had registration of two-thirds of 1%, and consequently frequently goes off the ballot and then must petition to get back on again. If those parties were also listed on the form, the Greens would plausibly meet the registration test. UPDATE: here is a news story that mentions the hearing, and gives the exact location.
According to this story, the Democratic national convention in 2016 will start either July 25 or August 22. The 2016 Republican convention will start July 18. Early August is not used for major party presidential conventions because the Olympics take place then, and no major party wants its national convention overshadowed by the Olympics.
Generally, the two major party conventions are held fairly close together in time. The last time the gap between the two major party conventions was greater than five weeks was in 1972, when Democrats convened on July 10 but Republicans didn’t convene until August 21, a gap of six weeks. Tradition dictates that the major party that holds the White House meets later than the other major party.
The South Dakota Senate State Affairs Committee has introduced SB 69, which moves the petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties from March to February. The bill was introduced at the request of the State Board of Elections and the Secretary of State.
These state officials probably don’t remember that in 1984, South Dakota’s Attorney General and Secretary of State admitted that a February petition deadline for a newly-qualifying party is unconstitutional, and the legislature then moved that deadline to April. This admission was made after the South Dakota Libertarian Party sued the Secretary of State. That case is reported at 579 F Supp 735 (1984). However, the only decision the judge had to make in that case was that the wording on the party petition was unconstitutionally restrictive. The judge didn’t need to adjudicate the part of the case that challenged the February deadline, because the state admitted it was too early.
SB 69 also moves the deadline for primary petitions from March 1 to February 1. Newly-qualifying parties in South Dakota, like all qualified parties, must nominate by primary for most, but not all, partisan offices. Other states whose party petition deadlines have been held to be too early have provided that newly-qualifying parties need not participate in a primary. States that made that change after their deadlines were invalidated include Arkansas, California (but only for presidential status), Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Tennessee, and Wyoming. Also after North Dakota’s deadline for newly qualifying parties was held too early, the state made it possible for independent presidential candidates to have a partisan label printed on the ballot; and when Hawaii was being sued over its party deadline, it settled the case by also letting independent presidential candidates have a partisan label.
During the last eight years, the South Dakota legislature has made ballot access steadily worse, year after year. In 2007 it removed the ability of independent candidates to have a partisan label other than just “independent” on the ballot, and made it more difficult for members of a small qualified party to get on their own party’s primary ballot, and moved the petition deadline for new parties from April to March. In 2013 the legislature moved the non-presidential independent petition deadline from June to April. South Dakota is the only state in the nation in which it is impossible for a newly-qualifying party to have its name on the November ballot (at least for President) unless it qualified in time to have its own primary.
On January 19, Lord Ashcroft Polls, one of Great Britain’s leading pollsters, released a poll for the May 2015 House of Commons election. It shows 11% for the Green Party, but 9% for the Liberal Democratic Party. This outcome will aid the Green Party in its fight to be included in at least one of the national debates. See this Guardian story about the poll results.
