On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court released its opinion in Hollingsworth v Perry, the California case over same-sex marriage. The entire discussion in this opinion is whether initiative proponents have standing to defend their initiative, if it passed and then a U.S. District Court struck it down. The majority says that if an initiative is thrown out by a U.S. District Court, and then state officials decide not to appeal, the initiative proponents can’t appeal.

The vote was 5-4. The four Justices who wanted to uphold the ability of initiative proponents to go to a U.S. Court of Appeals to defend their initiative were Justices Kennedy, Alito, Sotomayor, and Thomas. Justice Kennedy, writing for the four of them, said, “A prime purpose of justiciability is to ensure vigorous advocacy, yet the Court insists upon litigation conducted by state officials whose preference is to lose the case.”

On June 25, the California Assembly Elections Committee passed SB 213, which repeals all residency requirements for petitioners. The bill had already passed the State Senate.

As noted earlier, an omnibus election law bill was signed by Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer last week. The bill, HB 2305, contains the provision that vastly increases the difficulty for members of minor parties to get on their own party’s primary ballot. The bill has many other provisions which are strongly opposed by the Democratic Party and by various voting rights organizations.

If opponents of the bill can obtain 86,405 valid signatures on a referendum petition by September 11, 2013 (90 days after the adjournment of the legislature), then the bill can’t go into effect until after the voters vote on it. That vote would be on November 4, 2013. It is somewhat likely that opponents of the bill will launch a referendum petition. The Arizona referendum procedure, requiring signatures of 5% of the last gubernatorial vote, is easier than the state’s initiative petition requirement. Initiatives require 10% of the last gubernatorial vote for a statute, and 15% for a state constitutional amendment.