On February 19, the U.S. Supreme Court accepted one campaign finance case, and took no action on whether to hear another one. The accepted case is McCutcheon v FEC, 12-536. The lower court had upheld federal limits on how much money an individual may donate in any two-year period to all federal candidates combined. This is not a case about how much an individual may contribute to any one particular federal candidate, but a case about the total amount of money an individual may give to any and all candidates.

The case in which the Court deferred a decision is Danielczyk v U.S., 12-579, over the federal law that makes it illegal for a corporation to donate to a candidate for federal office. The lower court had upheld the law.

McCutcheon v FEC will not be argued until the U.S. Supreme Court term that begins in October 2013.

Also on February 19, the Court refused to grant a stay in Noonan v Bowen, 12A606, in which the former California state chair of the American Independent Party had argued that President Obama doesn’t meet the constitutional qualifications.

It also refused to hear LaVergne v Blank, 12-778, over whether the Constitution requires that the size of the U.S. House be substantially increased, and whether or not a “proto-First Amendment” actually passed in 1792, requiring one U.S. House seat for each 50,000 residents.

This article in CapitalNewYork analyzes one of the biggest mysteries of the National Popular Vote Plan movement…why the plan has never passed in New York state. The plan has passed in the State Senate in New York (in a previous legislative session) so the conventional wisdom would predict that it would also pass in the Assembly, where Democrats have a huge majority over Republicans. But because the Democratic Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, and the Speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, don’t seem to care about the bill, so far it has not passed the Assembly.

New York city elects its mayor and other important city offices on November 5, 2013, in partisan elections. Adolfo Carrion, Jr., former two-term President of the Bronx, and Director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs Policy, and a registered independent, is seeking the Mayor’s office.

On February 16, Carrion was the only candidate for Mayor invited to speak at the annual national conference of IndependentVoting. Leaders of IndependentVoting are also leaders of the New York City Independence Party, and it is clear that leaders of the New York city Independence Party support Carrion for the party’s nomination. Carrion will also seek the nomination of the Republican Party, but it is not yet certain that Republican Party leaders will permit him to enter the Republican mayoral primary. Because he is not a registered Republican, he must get permission from party leaders in order to appear on the Republican primary ballot.

Here is a story about Carrion’s appearance at the IndependentVoting conference. If elected, Carrion will be the first New York city mayor of hispanic origin; he is Puerto Rican.

When Carrion was elected President of the Bronx, he was a registered Democrat. He switched from being a Democrat, to being an independent, on October 12, 2012.