On February 24, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Fox v Sanders County Republican Committee, 13-839. The Ninth Circuit had struck down Montana’s law forbidding political parties to endorse or oppose candidates for judge, by a 2-1 vote. Montana had asked for U.S. Supreme Court review, but did not obtain it.
On February 19, a U.S. District Court rejected Bernbeck v Gale, 8:13cv-228, a case against Nebraska’s ban on paying initiative circulators on a per-signature basis. The basis was that the same plaintiff had lost in this issue in state court.
However, the decision says that the plaintiff is free to proceed against another law mentioned in the Complaint, the Nebraska county distribution for statewide initiatives. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled back in 1969 that county distribution requirements for statewide petitions are unconstitutional, because counties have widely differing populations.
On February 11, the New York Senate Elections Committee passed S3149, the National Popular Vote Plan bill. An identical bill, A4422, had passed the Assembly last year, and New York has two-year legislative sessions, so the only barrier to the bill’s passing this year is an upcoming vote in the State Senate. See this story.
On November 8, 2013, a federal lawsuit was filed against Oregon’s ban on paying petitioners on the basis of how many signatures they collect. Buehler v Brown, 3:13cv-1990.
An earlier lawsuit against that ban failed to achieve any change in the law. That case was Prete v Bradbury, 438 F 3d 949 (2006). However, in that case, the Ninth Circuit wrote, “To be clear, we do not hold that Measure 26 is facially constitutional. Rather, we hold that because the district court did not clearly err in determining plaintiffs failed to establish that Measure 26 significantly diminishes the pool of potential petition circulators, increases the cost of signature gathering, or increases the invalidity rate of signatures gathered, we cannot conclude that Measure 26 imposes a ‘severe burden’ under the First Amendment.”
Plaintiffs in the new lawsuit expect to submit evidence that the restriction does impose a severe burden, and thus their case is not foreclosed by the 2006 opinion.
See this news story about the Arkansas Libertarian Party’s nominating convention, held February 22. The party nominated candidates for U.S. Senator, Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and all four U.S. House seats. The party might have nominated more candidates, but a law passed in 2013 requires ballot-qualified minor parties to nominate no later than February, even though the major parties don’t nominate until late May.
The Libertarians petitioned for party status for the first time in 2012, but there was no U.S. Senate election, and no gubernatorial election, in Arkansas in 2012. The party did not get as much as 3% for President in 2012, so was removed from the ballot and had to re-petition in 2014.
The Green Party, the only other ballot-qualified party besides the two major parties in Arkansas, nominated earlier this month, but only has four nominees: for Governor, U.S. Senator, and two local government posts.
