On May 16, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a lawsuit over whether the amount of attorneys’ fees awarded to Ralph Nader’s ballot access attorneys in Arizona had been fair. In 2008 the 9th circuit had struck down Arizona’s June petition deadline for independent presidential candidates, and had also struck down Arizona’s ban on out-of-state circulators. Under federal law, when a voting rights case (or other type of civil rights case) is won by plaintiffs against a state government, the state government must pay attorneys’ fees. The attorneys who represented Ralph Nader had felt that the lower courts had not given them enough fees, and had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. But the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene. The case was Nader v Bennett, 10-1186.

U.S. District Court Judge Otis Wright will hear oral arguments in Chamness v Bowen on June 13, Monday, at 1:30 p.m., in Los Angeles. This is the lawsuit that challenges two particular details of California’s top-two system: (1) the discriminatory policy on partisan labels on ballots; and (2) and the provision that says that even though write-in space is printed on ballots, no write-ins can be counted for Congress or state office in general elections.

On May 14, the Libertarian Party of Indianapolis (which is co-terminous with Marion County) held its nominating convention. Ed Coleman was nominated for city council, 24th district. He is an incumbent who was elected in 2007 as a Republican. Then, in 2008, he had announced that he had joined the Libertarian Party. There had been an expectation, but not a certainty, that when his term was up in 2011, he would run for re-election as a Libertarian.

It will not be easy for Coleman to be re-elected as a Libertarian, because Indiana has a straight-ticket device. See this story about the nominating convention.