On December 21, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Bataillon heard arguments in Bernbeck v Gale, 4:10-cv-3001.  The issues are various restrictions on who can circulate a petition, and how circulators may be paid.  See this story.  The judge promised to rule quickly.  Nebraska is in the 8th circuit, and the 8th circuit is the only circuit in which residency restrictions have been upheld, in the years since the U.S. Supreme Court first said petitioning is First Amendment activity.  The U.S. Supreme Court first said that in 1988, when it unanimously struck down a law banning paying circulators.

On December 20, a U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., issued an opinion explaining the basis for its order last week in LaRoque v Holder.  This is the case brought by some voters in Kinston, North Carolina, who supported a winning city ballot measure in 2008 that converted city elections from partisan elections to non-partisan elections.  The U.S. Justice Department had then objected to switching to non-partisan elections.  The voters then sued the Attorney General.  Last week the court ruled against the voters, and for the U.S. Justice Department, but did not issue an explanation.  Now, the court has released its explanation.

The court says the plaintiff voters don’t have standing because they are not truly injured by the Justice Department’s action.  The decision implies that if the city of Kinston had filed the lawsuit, then the lawsuit could have proceeded.  Thanks to Rick Hasen’s ElectionLawBlog for the link.

On December 21, the Census Bureau released its calculation of how many seats in the U.S. House each state will have, starting in 2012.

Texas gained four seats; Florida gained two seats; and these states each gained one seat:  Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah, and Washington.

New York and Ohio each lost two seats; and these states each lost one seat:  Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.