On December 9, Ralph Nader filed this very clear, non-technical, and highly readable brief, asking a U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to reconsider its decision in Nader v Federal Election Commission, 1:10-cv-00989. The brief is 12 pages and is well worth reading.

Nader had filed the lawsuit on 2010, after the FEC had refused to investigate his complaint that Democrats in 2004 spent millions of dollars to keep him off the ballot in 2004, and did not list these expenses in campaign finance reports. The complaint also lists other entities that acted in a similar manner. On November 9, the U.S. District Court had dismissed the lawsuit, even though the decision acknowledges that the FEC did not follow the law. The decision says the FEC had committed “harmless error.”

In Georgia, leaders of the two major parties decide who will be listed on their presidential primary ballots. Candidates need not file. Those not chosen have no recourse, except to ask the major party figures in the state to reconsider their omission.

The Democratic Party, not surprisingly, chose to list only President Obama. The Georgia Republican Party leaders chose Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Gary Johnson, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Buddy Roemer, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum.

The only other state with similar presidential primary ballot access is Florida. In Florida, the Republicans chose the same names as those in the Georgia race, except that Florida Republicans excluded Buddy Roemer.

On December 9, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear oral arguments in Perry v Perez, 11A536, the lawsuit over Texas congressional and state legislative district boundaries. The hearing will be January 9, 2012, at 1 p.m. It is very rare for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear arguments in the afternoon, but this case is being expedited, and the Court already had a full hearing schedule in the morning on that day.

This development makes it likely that Texas will postpone its primary, at least for U.S. House and state legislature. The primary had been expected to be held on March 6. If the primary is moved to May, that automatically improves the petition deadline for parties seeking a place on the November ballot, from May to July. It makes a somewhat similar improvement for non-presidential independent candidates.

Candidates expecting to run for office in Texas in 2012 had already started to file.