On September 22, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put him on the New York ballot. The Court hasn’t yet assigned a case number or posted the filing on its website. Check back on Monday, September 23.
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The Upstate Jobs Party is preparing to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the decision Upstate Jobs Party v Kosinski, in which the Second Circuit upheld a New York campaign finance law that lets individuals give more contributions to a major party nominee than an independent candidate or the nominee of an unqualified party.
The party has received an extension of time in which to file the cert petition. It is now due October 31.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear Robert F. Kennedy, Jr’s appeal on whether his name should be covered up on the ballot with stickers. He argues that he should be allowed to vanish from the ballot, arguing Equal Protection. Independent candidates can’t withdraw after the filing deadline, but qualified parties have a month additional time to revise their nominees. See this story.
On September 18, a Pennsylvania state trial court revived the lawsuit Black Political Empowerment Project v Schmidt. The issue is the Pennsylvania law that requires absentee voters to fill in the date on the back of the envelope. The Commonwealth Court had ruled that such votes may be counted, but then on September 13 the State Supreme Court reversed on procedural grounds, because the Plaintiffs had not sued all 67 counties.
Then the lower court allowed the plaintiffs to amend their complaint and sue all the counties, so the case can be revived. See this story.
Earlier this year the Catoosa County (Georgia) Republican Party refused to place some candidates for county office on its May primary ballot, because the county party officers felt the candidates aren’t “bona fide” Republicans. Georgia does not have registration by party so there is no objective method to determine who is or isn’t a party member.
A trial state court then put the candidates on the primary ballot, and they won their primaries. The county party appealed to the State Court of Appeals, but the State Court of Appeals transferred the case to the State Supreme Court. The State Supreme Court said the party was negligent in taking too much time to appeal, so dismissed the case on those grounds. Thus the bigger issue of whether parties in Georgia can block candidates from their primaries on political grounds is still unresolved. Precedent in Georgia says parties can block presidential candidates from their own presidential primaries on political grounds, but it is still not clear whether that principle applies to other office.
Here is the decision in Catoosa County Republican Part v Henry, S24A0917.