According to this story, the New York legislature may re-convene as early as July. That would provide a new opportunity for the legislature to pass some important election law bills, including the Governor’s proposal to lower the number of signatures for statewide candidates (in both primaries and the general election) from 15,000 to 10,000 signatures. Also it would possibly enable the National Popular Vote Plan bill to pass. It passed the Assembly this year but not the State Senate. Last year it passed the State Senate but not the Assembly.

On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court released its opinion in Hollingsworth v Perry, the California case over same-sex marriage. The entire discussion in this opinion is whether initiative proponents have standing to defend their initiative, if it passed and then a U.S. District Court struck it down. The majority says that if an initiative is thrown out by a U.S. District Court, and then state officials decide not to appeal, the initiative proponents can’t appeal.

The vote was 5-4. The four Justices who wanted to uphold the ability of initiative proponents to go to a U.S. Court of Appeals to defend their initiative were Justices Kennedy, Alito, Sotomayor, and Thomas. Justice Kennedy, writing for the four of them, said, “A prime purpose of justiciability is to ensure vigorous advocacy, yet the Court insists upon litigation conducted by state officials whose preference is to lose the case.”

On June 25, the California Assembly Elections Committee passed SB 213, which repeals all residency requirements for petitioners. The bill had already passed the State Senate.