The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Susan B. Anthony List v Driehaus, 13-193, at its January 10, 2014 conference. The issue is Ohio’s law that bans making a false statement in a political campaign. The lower courts in this case, and in similar cases in the past, did not rule on the constitutionality of the law due to perceived procedural obstacles.
Scotusblog, the premier web site for U.S. Supreme Court news, periodically has a “Petitions to Watch” list. This is done in advance of every U.S. Supreme Court conference, and represents the opinion of the editors of Scotusblog that the listed cases have some hope of being chosen by the U.S. Supreme Court. Here is the Scotusblog list for the December 13 conference. It includes nine cases that are on the December 13 conference for the first time, and among the nine, is Libertarian Party of Michigan v Ruth Johnson. This is the case on whether Gary Johnson should have been on the Michigan 2012 ballot for President. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
On December 9, James Hall, the independent candidate for U.S. House in Alabama’s upcoming special election in the First District, filed this brief in the Eleventh Circuit. There should be a decision in the next few days. The election is December 17. The outcome of the case will determine whether Hall is on the ballot. He has already expressed his acceptance of being left off some absentee ballots.
The U.S. House of Representatives will take up debate, and a likely vote, on HR 2019, on Tuesday, December 10. The bill, as amended, eliminates public funding for national presidential conventions. Such public funding has existed starting in 1976, and only applies to parties that polled at least 5% in the previous presidential election. The only party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, that ever received public funding for its national convention was the Reform Party, which received such funding for its 2000 national convention. Thanks to the Center for Competitive Politics for this news.
On December 2, the Maryland Court of Appeals, the state’s highest state court, ruled that petition sheets are not invalid just because the circulator’s affidavit contains a minor error. Here is the decision in Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 35 v Montgomery County, 2011-132. The vote was 6-1. The lower court had invalidated a referendum petition because two of the circulators used an incorrect zip code when they filled out their affidavits.
One circulator’s actual zip code was 49006, but he wrote down 49008. Another circulator’s zip code was 49048, but he wrote down 49004. The two of them together had collected 6,136 otherwise valid signatures, and the referendum would not have had enough valid signatures if their work had been disqualified.
Maryland has very stringent rules about signatures of voters on petitions, but this case involved the circulator’s affidavit, and did not concern petition signatures of voters.
