A U.S. District Court in Camden, New Jersey, will hold a hearing in Lewis v Guardagno, 11-cv-2381, on Friday, August 19, at 2 p.m. The issue is whether Carl Lewis should be on the November 8, 2011 ballot for State Senate in the 8th district. He won the Democratic primary in June but his name will not be on the ballot unless he wins in court. It is possible the judge will rule immediately after the hearing.
The Sunshine News has this article on the possibility that Roy Moore will seek the Constitution Party’s presidential nomination. The Sunshine News, a Florida on-line news service, seems to give the Constitution Party better coverage than most news sources do. A few months ago the Sunshine News had a similar article on whether former Congressman Virgil Goode would seek the party’s presidential nomination.
As noted previously, on August 12, a lower state court in Colorado ruled that the November 2010 Saguache County ballots must be submitted to the Secretary of State so his office can recount them. The Denver Post of August 17 has this editorial, agreeing with the court. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link. Saguache County uses ES&S vote-counting machines.
The North Carolina legislature meets on September 12 in a special session that has the authority to act on election law bills. At that time the legislature may pass HB 32, the ballot access reform bill that has already passed the House. It may also pass one of the bills that abolishes the straight-ticket device.
If those bills don’t pass in September, it is likely that another special session will be held in December 2011. After that, the legislature won’t meet until May 2012.
The U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, will hold an oral argument on November 9, 2011, in Initiative & Referendum Institute v U.S. Postal Service, 10-5337. This is the case over the constitutionality of the post office’s ban on petitioning on all interior postal sidewalks. The case was filed in 2000.
The U.S. Court of Appeals already ruled in August 2005 that the petitioning ban for postal sidewalks parallel to the street is unconstitutional. At that time, the Appeals court sent the case back to the U.S. District Court to settle the interior sidewalks issue. The lower court delayed the case for years, and then ruled in favor of the postal regulation.
UPDATE: the three judges will be Karen L. Henderson, Janice Rogers Brown, and Thomas B. Griffith. Judge Brown wrote the decision in Boardley v U.S. Department of the Interior, 615 F.3d 508 (2010) which struck down rigid rules on First Amendment activity in national parks. Judge Henderson was on the panel in this same post office lawsuit in 2005, in which the three Appeals judges ruled favorably on postal sidewalks parallel to the street.
