The Daily Free Press, an independent student newspaper at Boston University, has this article about Economics Professor Laurence Kotlikoff’s campaign for the Americans Elect presidential nomination. As the story says, because he has never held important elected office, he needs 50,000 clicks, not 10,000 clicks, to be nominated. “Click” means a vote in the Americans Elect on-line nomination process. The deadline for showing this support is April 30.

Professor Kotlikoff believes he is the first Economics Professor to ever run for President. He is a registered independent, although he served as an economics advisor under President Ronald Reagan.

On March 27, the Montana corporations who lost in the Montana Supreme Court on December 30, 2011, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their appeal. The issue is whether the First Amendment protects the ability of corporations to spend money speaking about candidates for state office. Here is the petition. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.

On March 27, the North Carolina Constitution Party filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against North Carolina’s May petition deadline for newly-qualifying parties. The case is North Carolina Constitution Party v Bartlett. It is expected that the North Carolina Green Party will soon join the case.

In 1988, North Carolina’s Board of Elections was so sure that the May petition deadlines for newly-qualifying parties is unconstitutional, that it waived the deadline and allowed the New Alliance Party to submit its petition in July.

States in which May and June petition deadlines for newly-qualifying parties to submit their signatures have been held too early, or have been enjoined, are Alaska, Idaho, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. Also, in Populist Party v Herschler, a Wyoming case, the 10th circuit said that June is probably too early, but didn’t definitely decide the issue. States in which independent presidential petition deadlines in May and June have been struck down are Arizona, Kansas, and South Dakota. In some instances, the states agreed that their deadlines were too early and didn’t contest the lawsuit. North Carolina clearly has no state interest in requiring newly-qualifying parties to submit the petition in May, because in North Carolina, newly-qualifying parties do not nominate by primary, and the state lets independent candidates submit their petitions in June.