The Sixth Circuit will hear Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22. The Sixth Circuit isn’t sitting this week, so the hearing will be on the telephone, with all participants being included in a conference call. On April 18, the Libertarian Party filed a supplemental letter with the court, identifying a Sixth Circuit decision from 1998 that is relevant to the case.

The issue in the case is whether the party’s statewide candidates should be kept off the party’s primary ballot, on the grounds that the circulators didn’t fill out a blank on each petition form that asks who is paying the circulator. The supplemental authority mentioned in the party’s April 18 letter refers to National Labor Relations Board v Midland Daily News, 151 F.3d 472, which found that forcing a newspaper to disclose the identity of an anonymous advertiser, even though it only involved commercial and not political speech, would significantly chill the First Amendment rights of newspapers.

The three judges are Richard Suhrheinrich, Julia Smith Gibbons, and Deborah L. Cook. Suhrheinrich is an appointee of President George H. W. Bush; the other two judges were appointed by President George W. Bush.

The Sacramento Press Club, a non-profit public benefit educational corporation, is hosting a debate for candidates for California Secretary of State at noon on April 23 (Wednesday). However, so far, the Press Club has not invited David Curtis, Green Party candidate, even though the Press Club has invited two other candidates who have less voter support than Curtis, according to the April 10 California Poll.

The Press Club has invited Dan Schnur, independent, who was at 4% in that poll, as well as Derek Cressman, Democrat, who was at 3% in the same poll. Here is the letter that Curtis’s attorney has sent to the Press Club, pointing out that federal law requires debate sponsors to use objective criteria when they decide which candidates to invite into debates. Paradoxically, Curtis is a member of the Sacramento Press Club and he will be at the event, either in the audience or possibly as a late-entry into the debate. UPDATE: here is a news story.

The first two briefs have been filed in U.S. District Court in Moore v Martin, the case challenging the March petition deadline that the 2013 session of the Arkansas legislature passed. Here is the Defendants’ brief, arguing that the case should be dismissed for various procedural matters, and here is the plaintiffs’ brief rebutting the state’s brief.