On November 17, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously that proponents of a state initiative have standing to defend their initiative in court, if their initiative passes, but a trial court invalidates their measure and the then state government refuses to appeal. Perry v Brown, S189476.

As a result, it is likely that the Ninth Circuit will now begin the process of deciding whether California’s state constitutional provision barring same-sex marriages violates the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. District Court had said the ban does violate the U.S. Constitution, and the 9th circuit had delayed taking up the appeal until the State Supreme Court answered the question about standing for initiative proponents.

On November 16, a Louisiana state court ordered that the Republican Party’s election of state party committeemembers use legislative districts, instead of the party’s old districts drawn specifically for the purpose of electing party officers. The party drew those districts in 2003, and has not redrawn them to take account of 2010 census data. See this story. The party may appeal. Using legislative districts has the advantage that the legislative districts have been updated to use 2010 census data. But because there are substantially fewer legislative districts than Republican Party committee districts, the order means that the Republican state committee will only have two-thirds as many members, compared to the recent past.

The election of party committee members is set for March 24, and is simultaneous with the presidential primaries.

On November 16, the federal government refused New York state’s request for a 2012 waiver from the 2009 federal law that requires states to mail overseas absentee ballots at least 45 days before any federal primary or federal election. See this story. As a result, it seems very likely that a U.S. District Court will soon order New York state to move its non-presidential primary from September to August.