Here is a registration link for this webinar to be hosted at 2PM Eastern Time on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, by the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University.
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The Iowa Supreme Court will hear the Iowa Libertarian Party’s ballot access on Tuesday, September 10, at 10 a.m. The issue is whether the party’s three U.S. House candidates should be on the ballot. The party held the county and state conventions on the same day, but the objecters say that is illegal. See this story.
On September 9, the Michigan Supreme Court refused to hear the Democratic Party’s appeal in West v Michigan Secretary of State. The two lower levels of state court hade kept Cornel West on the ballot. The Secretary of State accepted those decisions, but the Democratic Party had intervened in the caes and had filed an appeal. The issue was whether some paperwork had been properly notarized. The lower courts had ruled that the paperwork wasn’t even needed, so any problem with notarization was not relevant.
The Democratic Party had also argued that some of the voters who signed the West petition had been deceived by the circulators.
On September 9, the Michigan Supreme Court issued an opinion in Robert F. Kennedy, Jr v Secretary of State, 167545, putting him back on the ballot against his wishes. The midlevel court had allowed his to withdraw, but now he can’t withdraw. However, the opinion was a victory for the Natural Law Party of Michigan, which had nominated him and did not want him to withdraw.
On September 3, the Indiana Green Party asked for rehearing en banc in the Seventh Circuit, in the party’s ballot access case. Indiana Green Party v Morales, 23-2756. Both the U.S. District Court and the Seventh Circuit had upheld the 2% petition requirement even though the state had presented no evidence in support of the law, and even though the party had submitted a great deal of evidence. That evidence, which is uncontested, establishes that no statewide independent petition, or petition for an unqualified party nominee, can succeed without the expenditure of approximately $500,000.
The Seventh Circuit said it is obvious that 2% petitions are constitutional, even though federal courts in Arkansas, Michigan, North Dakota, and South Dakota have struck down similar petition requirements. The Seventh Circuit decision did not mention any of these precedents.