On December 29, a Virginia voter who signed the petition to put Newt Gingrich on the Virginia ballot filed a lawsuit in state court, charging that many signatures on the Gingrich petition were probably invalidated, even though they were valid. The lawsuit focuses on the aspect of the state form that doesn’t give people much room to show their address. See this story. The lawsuit is in state court in Richmond. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
Virginia state legislator Bob Marshall, a Republican, has publicly urged his party to drop the voter loyalty oath for the March 6 presidential primary. See this story.
On December 29, six attorneys who worked on the lawsuit Heller v District of Columbia were awarded a total of $1,132,182 in attorneys fees. Heller v D.C. was not an election law case. This post is nevertheless being made because it illustrates the power of the 1976 federal law that awards attorneys’ fees to attorneys who win constitutional civil rights cases. Election law cases are part of civil rights. Here is the District Court’s order, explaining how the amount was calculated.
Heller v D.C. challenged the District’s total ban on handguns. Heller won the case in the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008. Heller’s three main attorneys received these amounts: Alan Gura $662,424; Clark Neily $294,084; Robert Levy $101,020. Three other attorneys for Heller received smaller amounts.
Heller’s attorneys received compensation for the hours they spent researching the Ninth Amendment, even though they did not win the case on Ninth Amendment grounds. Instead, they won on Second Amendment grounds. Thanks to How Appealing for the link.
On December 29, the 9th circuit agreed with a U.S. District Court that Washington state cannot prohibit anyone from giving as much as $5,000 in a ballot measure campaign, during the three weeks before the election. Family PAC v McKenna, 10-35832. The 24-page opinion is here. The state defended the law by saying because Washington state uses all-mail ballots, lots of voters vote before election day. They might vote before they find out that someone gave as much as $5,000 for or against a ballot measure. But the decision says “voters who cast their ballots while campaigning is in full swing, however, make a voluntary choice to forgo relevant information that may come to light in the final weeks of the campaign.”
The same decision upholds two other Washington state laws. One says all campaign contributions for or against a ballot measure must be reported if they are as large as $25. The other laws says if the donation is as much as $100, the disclosure must include the donor’s employer’s name, and the donor’s occupation.
Ohio petitions for presidential candidates and their slates of delegates are due on December 30, 2011, at 4 p.m. Candidates running in Republican and Democratic presidential primaries need 1,000 signatures if they are using the statewide option. Candidates running in any qualified minor party presidential primaries need 500 signatures.
So far, the only Republicans who have filed in Ohio are Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. Chances are, none of the five qualified parties is going to have any candidates on its own presidential primary ballot. Greens had thought of qualifying Jill Stein and Kent Mesplay, but were taken by surprise on December 16 when the legislature changed the date of the presidential primary from June to March. Before the legislature’s surprise action, everyone had expected that the presidential primary petition deadline would be in February.
