On April 3, 2012, the Peace & Freedom Party had filed a federal lawsuit in Sacramento, to overturn the California Secretary of State’s decision to bar Peta Lindsay from the party’s presidential primary ballot. U.S. District Court Judge Garland Burrell had declined to issue an injunction to put her on the ballot. She freely admits that she is under the age of 35.

On September 6, the Secretary of State had then filed a motion to dismiss the case. Judge Burrell has not yet acted on that motion. On September 20, he reset the pretrial scheduling conference in this case from October 1 to November 26, at 9 a.m. He would probably not have done that if he expected to dismiss the case without a trial.

The California Secretary of State has taken internally inconsistent positions on whether to print candidates on the ballot who do not meet the constitutional requirements to hold the office. On the one hand, she kept Lindsay off the presidential primary ballot. On the other hand, she puts candidates for the legislature on the ballot, whether they meet the State Constitution’s requirement that they have lived in the district for at least one year, under the theory that she cannot judge the qualifications; only the legislature can do that. This is true, even in instances at which there is no dispute that the legislative candidate does not meet the duration of residency requirement.

On October 1, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal filed by the Washington state Democratic Party, and the Washington state Libertarian Party, against the top-two primary system. Technically, this means that the U.S. Supreme Court has not expressed any opinion on the matter. Nevertheless, it is a disappointment for opponents of that type of system.

On September 30, California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed SB 1233, which would have required that the text of initiative petitions be translated into languages other than English. Circulators would be required to have all versions of the text when they work. Here is his veto message.