The Tenth Circuit will hear Citizen Center v Gessler, 12-1414, on March 17, Monday, at 9 a.m. This is the case over whether the U.S. Constitution protects the right to a secret ballot. The case had originally been filed to block the practice of printing unique bar codes on ballots, so that theoretically election officials could determine how a particular voter voted. But the U.S. District Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution does not protect a secret ballot, so the Tenth Circuit will grapple with that as well.

Georgia state officials will not ask for reconsideration of the January 6 order of the Eleventh Circuit that remanded the ballot access case back to the U.S. District Court. The time period for the state to have asked for that has now passed. This means that the case is now back in the U.S. District Court for certain. The issue is whether presidential ballot access in Georgia is too difficult. No one has complied with the Georgia procedures for president in the general election in fourteen years.

The January 21 issue of the New York Times has a story about a recent judicial appointment by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. According to the story, the appointee, who will be leaving the job of chief executive of the Delaware River Port Authority, has a bad record for integrity and stewardship of public funds. The story also explains that the boss of the Democratic Party of southern New Jersey is a close associate, and that Democrats in the State Senate supported the appointment even though, according to the facts brought out in the story, they should not have approved him. As is well known, Governor Christie is a Republican. Be sure to read the last third of the story.