On August 26, a lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus, Ohio, to expand the area of Columbus State Community College that permits First Amendment activity. Although the plaintiff does not want to circulate a petition, if he wins, the precedent would also expand petitioning rights. The plaintiff wants to leaflet and to speak. The college says none of this activity is permitted, except in two tiny enclaves of the campus that include only 1% of the square area of the campus. The school is a public institution. The case is Anderson v Harrison, southern district, 2:13cv838. Here is the complaint. Thanks to Alliance Alert for this news.

The Los Angeles Times covered the August 27 story announcement by Cindy Sheehan that she will run for Governor of California in 2014. See here.

This article in the Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction, Colorado, says the Constitution Party has suffered from being a qualified major party. The party is a major party because it polled over 10% of the vote for Governor in 2010. However, according to the article, the party would have been better off if it had remained a qualified minor party. Major parties must file many complicated campaign finance reports. The party’s reports have had errors and omissions, or have been late, so the party has been repeatedly fined, and now has a negative bank balance.

Qualified minor parties in Colorado generally nominate by convention and need not petition for ballot access for their nominees.