On September 10, the Missouri Supreme Court restored an initiative concerning abortion to the ballot. A lower court had removed it on September 6. Coleman v Ashcroft, SC 100742. The challengers had claimed that the initiative had failed to list all the existing Missouri laws that would be repealed or amended if the initiative passed. The Supreme Court did not explain its reasoning, but said it would do that later. The court order does not say if the court order is unanimous or not.
See this news story about the oral argument in the Iowa Supreme Court held on Tuesday, September 10. The court said it would decide on or before Wednesday, September 11.
On September 9, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., appealed to the State Court of Appeals, in his attempt to get off the Wisconsin ballot. The trial court had kept him on the ballot, against his wishes. Kennedy v Wisconsin Elections Commission. Here is his brief.
On September 3, a Montana state trial court kept Green Party U.S. Senate candidate Robert Barb on the ballot. Montana Democratic Party v State of Montana and Christi Jacobsen, Lewis & Clark Jud. District, BDV-2024-542. However, the Democratic Party is appealing to the State Supreme Court.
The Green Party’s original nominee, chosen by the June Green Party primary, had withdrawn, and the party’s state committee had replaced him with Robert Barb. The Democratic Party said the Green Party’s bylaws don’t permit the state committee to do that; that only the entire membership of the Green Party can do that. However, the judge said that the Democratic Party’s challenge was filed improperly. Here is the 9-page opinion.
Last month, the Montana Democratic Party filed a state court lawsuit to remove the Green Party nominee for U.S. Senate from the ballot. See this story. The Montana Green Party is ballot-qualified. In Montana, all qualified parties nominate by primary. The winner of the Green Party primary withdrew after the election. State law gave the Green Party the right to replace him with someone else. The party chose Robert Bard, who had lost the Green Party primary. The Democrats say Bard is ineligible because the Green Party didn’t vet him, but there is no such requirement in the law.
Montana state courts removed the Green Party from the ballot in both 2018 and 2020, after the Democratic Party challenged the party’s petition. Later the law that the Democrats had used the invalidate the petition was itself invalidated by the Ninth Circuit, so the Green Party got back on the ballot due to the Ninth Circuit decision.
