On January 10, U.S. District Court Judge John A. Gibney, Jr., ordered the Virginia State Board of Elections to inform all local electoral boards that they should not print or distribute any Republican presidential primary absentee ballots until the hearing on January 13 over the constitutionality of the Virginia ballot access laws. Judge Gibney also said, “The Court finds that there is a strong likelihood that the Court will find the residency requirement for petition circulators to be unconstitutional.”

The State Board of Elections filed an immediate appeal with the Fourth Circuit. In that Fourth Circuit, the case is Perry v Judd, 12-1042. Judge Gibney had previously ordered the State Board of Elections not to print or mail any absentee ballots, but until the January 10 order, the county and independent city electoral boards had not been instructed to delay any preparations for the March 6 primary.

On January 10, a U.S. District Court held oral arguments in Green Party of Tennessee et al v Goins, a lawsuit in which the Green and Constitution Parties challenge the Tennessee ballot access law for new and previously unqualified parties. The law requires slightly more than 40,000 signatures, due April 5. UPDATE: here is a news story about the hearing.

The hearing seemed to go well for the minor parties. The judge seemed unpersuaded that Tennessee has an interest in requiring so many signatures for minor parties, when the state only requires 25 signatures for independent candidates (and 275 signatures for independent presidential candidates). Also he seemed troubled by the early deadline.