Tim Fasano, the Independent American Party’s candidate for U.S. Senate in Nevada this year, is appealing his lawsuit to the Nevada Supreme Court. The case is Fasano v Miller. Earlier, the Nevada Secretary of State had placed the Tea Party candidate for U.S. Senate, Scott Ashjian, on the November ballot. Fasano had sued the Secretary of State to remove Ashjian, because Ashjian did not switch his party registration from “Republican” to “Tea Party” until the day after the deadline. The lower court had kept Ashjian on the ballot, and now the State Supreme Court will be asked to reverse that decision.

This Idaho Spokesman story, at the very end, carries quotes from Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa, as to the April 19 federal court decision that struck down the Idaho procedures for independent presidential candidates. The quotes seem to show that Ysursa will ask the legislature to reform the laws early next year, and that he prefers not to appeal.

The decision says it is not rational for Idaho to require 1,000 signatures for all non-presidential statewide independent candidates, and then require 6,500 for independent presidential candidates. The decision also struck down the ban on out-of-state circulators.

The U.S. Supreme Court hears Doe v Reed, 09-559, on April 28. On April 20, the final brief in that case was filed. Read it here. It is the rebuttal brief for proponents of keeping petition names and addresses secret, and consists of 24 pages of text.

Footnote 17 criticizes the amicus brief filed by Ohio and many other states. That amicus said that it is necessary for petition names and addresses to be made publicly available, in order to prevent petition fraud. That amicus gave as an example the Ralph Nader 2004 independent candidate petition controversy. As footnote 17 explains, no one charged anyone connected with the Ohio Nader petition with petition fraud. Instead, the controversy was whether four of Nader’s petitioners really lived in Ohio. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.