On June 17, the Florida Supreme Court voted 4-2 to strike down a 2007 law that lets voters remove their signatures on initiative petitions. UPDATE: Here is the court’s order. As a result, it is almost certain that the “Florida Hometown Democracy” initiative will qualify for the 2010 ballot. The case is Florida Hometown Democracy v Browning. The Court will issue its opinion later. See this story.
On June 17, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, a Republican, sued the Arizona legislature, which has Republican majorities in both houses. See this story, or this one. The legislature has passed budget bills, but the legislature hasn’t forwarded those bills to the Governor. Legislative leaders suspect the Governor will veto the bills when she gets them, so they have delayed sending the bills. The Arizona Supreme Court will hear arguments on Tuesday, June 23, although they haven’t promised to take the case.
On June 15, the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization heard much testimony about the political status of Puerto Rico, and then passed a consensus resolution calling on the United States to expedite some means for Puerto Rico to determine its future status. See this account of the testimony.
HR 2499, the bill to authorize a vote of Puerto Rico residents as well as all U.S. citizens who were born in Puerto Rico (no matter where they now live), now has 138 co-sponsors. It has gained 25 co-sponsors in the last eleven days. The co-sponsors include 99 Democrats, 40 Republicans, and the independent non-voting member who represents the Northern Mariana Islands.
Among the 23 members of the Hispanic Caucus in the U.S. House, only 10 are among the co-sponsors. A majority of the Black Caucus (25 of the 43 members) are co-sponsors. The chair and both vice-chairs of the Hispanic Caucus are not co-sponsors.
The 40 Republican co-sponsors are Todd Akin of Missouri, Gus Bilirakis of Florida, Rob Bishop of Utah, Charles Boustany of Louisiana, Henry Brown of South Carolina, Dan Burton of Indiana, John Carter of Texas, Michael Castle of Delaware, Michael Conaway of Texas, John Culberson of Texas, Charles Dent of Pennsylvania, Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Florida, Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, Jeff Flake of Arizona, John Fleming of Louisiana, Trent Franks of Arizona, Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania, Steve LaTourette of Ohio, Dan Lungren of California, Connie Mack of Florida, Kenny Marchant of Texas, Michael McCaul of Texas, Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan, John Mica of Florida, Candice Miller of Michigan, Ron Paul of Texas, Mike Pence of Indiana, Ted Poe of Texas, Bill Posey of Florida, Adam Putnam of Florida, Thomas Rooney of Florida, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, Aaron Schock of Illinois, Christopher Smith of New Jersey, Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania, Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia, Joe Wilson of South Carolina, Robert Wittman of Virginia, and Don Young of Alaska.
The New Mexico Independent has this story about the ballot access lawsuit filed last month by the Libertarian and Green Parties against many New Mexico discriminatory election laws. The New Mexico Independent was founded in 2008 and is a daily web newspaper, the New Mexico branch of the Center for Independent Media.
Thanks to GreenPartyWatch for the link.
On June 16, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder spoke to the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. He said, “I pledge that the Justice Department will continue working to enforce our nation’s voting rights laws. And we will fight efforts to discriminate in the voting booth just as earnestly as we fight efforts to discriminate in the job or housing markets. You have my word, my friends. Our commitment to Equal Protection – and to full participation in our nation’s elections – will not waver. Never.” Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for the link. The full speech is here. It is 3 pages long.
