Don Assaid, a two-term incumbent on the Boutetort County, Virginia, Board of Supervisors, has been omitted from the November 8, 2011 ballot, because one of his petitioners doesn’t live in Assaid’s district. See this story. Assaid sued, but the case was dropped because it is too late to alter the ballot.

On July 6, 2011, the 4th circuit had virtually struck down Virginia’s residency requirement for petitioners. The 4th circuit had eliminated Virginia’s chief defense, that the purpose of the residency requirement is to keep candidates off the ballot if they don’t enjoy voter support in the district. But the 4th circuit gave Virginia another chance to defend the requirement, and sent it back to the U.S. District Court. Unfortunately that is not soon enough for Assaid. Assaid says he will seek re-election as a write-in candidate.

On September 28, Righthaven lost its second lawsuit this month, this time in Colorado. A U.S. District Court Judge ruled that when Righthaven bought the copyright to a newspaper photograph that many blogs reproduced, Righthaven did not simultaneously win the right to sue other media that used the picture. Here is the decision, which is Righthaven v Wolf and It Makes Sense Blog. A few weeks ago, Righthaven had lost in U.S. District Court in Nevada. Thanks to How Appealing for the link.

On the afternoon of September 27, the Colorado Supreme Court heard oral argument in Riddle v Ritter, 11-sa-12. The issue is whether a Colorado law, passed in 2004, violates the Colorado Constitution. The law says individuals may contribute $400 per year to candidates for the legislature who are nominated by primary, but only $200 per year to candidates for the legislature who get on the general election ballot by petition, or by being nominated in convention. In effect, the law gives higher contribution limits to Democrats and Republicans, relative to virtually everyone else. See this story.

The plaintiff, Joelle Riddle, is the individual who wanted to give $400 to an independent write-in candidate for the legislature, Kathleen Curry. Curry, an incumbent, was defeated for re-election in 2010 in a close election. She came close to winning, even though she was forced to be a write-in candidate in the general election. She couldn’t get on the ballot as an independent because she had changed her registration from “Democrat” to “independent” less than a year before the 2010 primary. The hearing seemed to go well for Riddle and Curry. This case had began in U.S. District Court, but that court had it removed to the State Supreme Court because it involved interpreting the State Constitution.