On September 26, the U.S. Supreme Court asked the Ohio government to file a response in Susan B. Anthony List v Driehaus, 13-193. This is the case that challenges an Ohio law that makes it illegal for candidates or political committees to make a false statement about a candidate. The law has been challenged many times in its history, but the lower courts invariably find procedural obstacles to determining the constitutionality of the Ohio law.

Ohio had previously told the U.S. Supreme Court that it waived its right to file a response, but now, of course, the state will file a response. Then the Court will decide whether to hear the case.

On July 1, 2013, the New Jersey Socialist Party filed a lawsuit in state court over voter registration. The state lets people register into certain unqualified parties, but it does not let voters register into the Socialist Party. The state has no objective procedures to decide which parties have voter registration rights. Instead, the state’s policy is to force any particular party to sue. Then, that party gets registration rights.

The Socialist Party case is Noble v State, Mercer County Superior Court, c86-13. The case has a status conference call on November 14. It is hoped that one result of this lawsuit is not only to let people register as members of the Socialist Party, but to nudge the state into setting forth objective standards to determine which parties can have voter registration rights.

New Jersey parties that already sued, and therefore have such rights, are Conservative, Constitution, Green, Libertarian, Natural Law, and Reform. It is odd that New Jersey continues to let all of these parties have registration rights, because the Conservative Party of New Jersey and the Natural Law Party of New Jersey have not had any candidates on the ballot in New Jersey in several years.

The Ohio Senate Government Oversight and Reform Committee will hear testimony on SB 193 on Tuesday, October 1, at 2 p.m. This is the bill to alter Ohio ballot access for minor parties.