Rhode Island Court Will Hear Case Against Discriminatory Public Funding for Political Parties

Posted on by July 12, 2010
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A U.S. District Court in Rhode Island is expediting the lawsuit Moderate Party of Rhode Island v Lynch, 10-265.  On August 5, the case will receive a hearing on the plaintiffs’ request for injunctive relief.  The case challenges Rhode Island laws on public funding for political parties.  The law discriminates against qualified political parties that become qualified by petition, and also against qualified political parties that become qualified by virtue of polling a large share of the vote in a presidential election.  When the law on public funding for political parties was written, parties only became ballot-qualified via polling 5% or more for Governor.  In 1994, when the law on how a party becomes ballot-qualified was expanded to let groups become qualified either with a party petition, or by polling 5% for President, no one ever thought to revise the companion law on public funding.

The Moderate Party is the only ballot-qualified party in Rhode Island, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties.  It became ballot-qualified by petition in 2009.

U.S. District Court Rules that Constitution Does Not Require Congress to Increase the Size of the U.S. House

Posted on by July 12, 2010
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On July 8, a 3-judge U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Mississippi ruled that the U.S. Constitution does not require a larger number of members in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Clemons v U.S. Department of Commerce, 3:09-cv-104.  The decision is 36 pages long.

Plaintiffs had based on their argument on the need to have approximately equal representation in the U.S. House.  Given that the size of the House is 435 members, and given that the Constitution implicitly seems to bar creating U.S. House districts that include parts of one state and parts of another state, the existing system provides great inequality between states.  Wyoming has one seat for 495,304 persons, but Montana has one seat for 905,316 persons.  Therefore, an individual voter in Wyoming has more than twice the voting power of a voter in Montana, for U.S. House representation.

The decision says that the Constitution was almost amended in the 1790’s to provide for an ever-increasing size in the U.S. House.  The proposed amendment to require that Congress constantly increase the size of the U.S. House passed in Congress and would have become part of the Constitution if one more state had ratified it.  In effect, the recent decision says that the courts should not impose an idea that might have become part of the text of the Constitution itself, but did not become part of the Constitution.  Thanks to Michael Warnken for the news.  The case will almost certainly be appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Riverside County, California, Counts 12,563 Late Votes.

Posted on by July 10, 2010
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Riverside County, California elections officials counted the disputed 12,563 late mail ballots on Friday night, and apparently those votes have already changed at least one outcome from the June 8, 2010 primary.  Before those votes had been counted, Juan Vargas was leading Mary Salas for the Democratic nomination, 40th State Senate district, by only 12 votes.  But according to this story, Salas now leads Vargas, although the story does not tell the new vote totals.  UPDATE:  the earlier story was incorrect.  Vargas defeated Salas by 22 votes.  See this corrected story.

Ben Manski, Well-Known Green Party Leader, Will Run for Open Legislative Seat in Madison, Wisconsin

Posted on by July 10, 2010
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Although the Wisconsin Green Party is one of the oldest state Green Parties in the U.S., it has never run a candidate for Assembly in Madison, Wisconsin (in Wisconsin, as in New York and California, the lower house of the legislature is called the Assembly).  However, Ben Manski recently declared his intention to run for the 77th district seat as a Green Party nominee.

The 77th district has been represented since 1984 by Spencer Black, who is the leader of the Democrats in the Assembly, but he is retiring.  Already, before Manski announced, the race was getting publicity because open legislative seats are so rare in Madison.  See this story.  Thanks to Green Party Watch for the news about Manski.  Here is the wiki article about Ben Manski.