According to this article, the Republican Party may hold its 2016 presidential convention in late June. As the article says, that would be the earliest major party presidential convention since 1948, when Republicans met June 21-25 in Philadelphia.

Such an early date would eliminate meaningful presidential primaries in California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Utah, the states with June presidential primaries. Republican rules require states to have chosen their delegates 35 days before the convention opens. It is possible the Republican Party can persuade those states to move their presidential primaries to an earlier date. Much will depend on whether the Democratic Party also moves its national convention to an earlier date. In 2012, both major parties nominated in September. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.

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.

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.