On the morning of September 25, arguments were heard in Massachusetts Republican Party v Deval Patrick in Massachusetts Superior Court in Boston, case no. 09-4078. In the afternoon of the same day, Judge Thomas Connolly ruled against the Republican Party and in favor of the Governor. The issue was whether H4246 could go into effect immediately or not. Here is the four-page decision.

When bills are passed in the Massachusetts legislature, they don’t go into effect for 90 days, unless the Governor declares an emergency; then the law can go into effect immediately. This bill says Governors may appoint a U.S. Senator to fill a vacancy, and that appointee would hold office until the state can hold a special election to fill the seat. The Republican Party said the Governor had no right to call this an emergency bill, but the Court said Governors have discretion to decide whether a bill relates to an emergency or not.

On September 24, Brett McClafferty, who is 21 years old, filed a federal lawsuit against a new city ordinance in Streetsboro, Ohio, requiring candidates for Mayor to be at least 23 years of age by the time of the mayoral election. The case is McClafferty v Portage County Board of Elections, 5:09-cv-2210. The election is this November, so Judge Sara Lioi is expediting the case. The hearing is Tuesday, Sep. 29, at 9 a.m. in Akron. See this story. Thanks to Carter Momberger for the link.

A U.S. District Court in Philadelphia will hear oral arguments in Constitution Party v Cortes on Monday, October 19, at 10 a.m., in the federal courthouse at 601 Market Street. The state will try to persuade the judge to dismiss the case without any further evidence. It would be valuable if people interested in this case could attend. The lawsuit, filed by the Constitution, Green and Libertarian Parties, challenges Pennsylvania’s unique system of charging candidates and parties for the costs of checking their petitions, if they fail to have enough valid signatures. It also challenges the careless way in which some counties count write-ins and others don’t, and the abitrary manner in which the state tallies write-ins for some candidates and not others, and finally it challenges the requirement that a party have approximately 1,000,000 registered voters before it can be on the November ballot without having to petition for its nominees.