A U.S. District Court in Idaho will hold a trial, starting October 12, 2010, in Idaho Republican Party v Ysursa, 08-cv-165.   This is the case in which the Republican Party is asserting that the party only wants people who are sympathetic to the party to be able to vote in its primaries.  Idaho does not have registration by party, and on primary election day, any voter can decide on the spur of the moment which party’s primary to vote in.  There will be evidence presented in the trial, on both sides, about whether people who are not sympathetic to the Republican Party have been voting in its Idaho primaries.

On June 21, the U.S. Supreme Court issued four opinions, but it didn’t release its election law case, Doe v Reed.  Nor did it release its pending freedom of association case, Christian Legal Society v Martinez.

The next opinion day is Thursday, June 24.  The only other opinion day left this term is Monday, June 28.

Scott Lee Cohen says he will submit 133,000 signatures to the Illinois State Board of Elections on Monday, June 21, the petition deadline. See this story. He is an independent candidate for Governor.

Cohen is already famous in Illinois. He won the Democratic primary in February for Lieutenant Governor. Party leaders didn’t like him, had not expected him to win the primary, and persuaded him to withdraw so that the party could substitute someone else. Then Cohen seemed to regret his decision to withdraw, so he launched an independent bid.