Ken R. Bush of St. Louis, Missouri, died on January 12, 2024, over a year ago, but I just learned this sad news. Bush was a Libertarian who worked for five years to persuade the Missouri legislature to pass a ballot access bill that makes it possible for minor parties to regularly appear on the Missouri ballot. From 1989 through 1993 his bill was introduced every year, and finally it became law.

Ken succeeded because he was so thoroughly talented with human relationships. He had a gentle sense of humor that helped his lobbying work. He was also very resourceful. He located the former legislator who had written the hostile bill of 1953 that virtually wiped out ballot access for minor parties. He persuaded that former legislator to make a statement that the bill was a mistake, and that it should be eased.

On January 27, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Hopkins v Watson, 24-560. This is the Mississippi case on felon voting rights. The original panel of the Fifth Circuit had struck down the ban on ex-felon registration on the basis that the ban violated the Eighth Amendment. But then the Fifth Circuit had reheard the case and reversed its own decision.

Last year, independent presidential candidate Shiva Ayyadurai, who was born in India, sued many states over whether he should be on the ballot. He did not win any of his cases, but his Wisconsin case is still pending in the Seventh Circuit. However, the state filed a brief arguing that the case is moot on December 3, 2024, and he has not filed a reply brief. Technically the case is still open. Frank Marshall v Wisconsin Elections Commission, 24-2746.