On July 17, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee passed SJR 19, a proposed constitutional amendment. It says, “Section 1. To advance democratic self-government and political equality, and to protect the integrity of government and the electoral process, Congress and the States may require and set reasonable limits on the raising and spending of money by candidates and others to influence elections. Section 2. Congress and the States shall have power to implement and enforce this article by appropriate legislation, and may distinguish between natural persons and corporations or other artificial entities created by law, including by prohibiting such entities from spending money to influence elections. Section 3. Nothing in this article shall be construed to grant Congress or the States the power to abridge the freedom of the press.”

The measure has 46 co-sponsors. Here is the list.

U.S. District Court John Tharp will hear arguments in Summers v Smart on August 13, in Chicago. This is the Green Party’s ballot access case, filed on July 14. The case is being expedited because the state wants to certify the November ballot in late August. In the meantime, the “binder check” process for the statewide Green Party petition hasn’t started yet.

The Libertarian Party “binder check” process is almost finished, and it appears the party has 31,000 valid signatures. It needs 25,000. However, the challengers will next to try invalidate all the signatures collected by a few circulators, even the signatures that have been ruled valid. The same thing happened to the Libertarian statewide slate in Illinois in 1998. Even though there were enough signatures ruled valid, in the end the party did not appear on the ballot because the State Board of Elections eliminated all the signatures collected by certain circulators.