On August 13, the 5th Circuit agreed with a lower court that public schools may prohibit students from wearing T-shirts with a campaign slogan. The student was forbidden in 2007 from wearing a T-shirt to school that said, “John Edwards for President ’08”. The case is Palmer v Waxahachie Independent School District, 08-10903. The school forbade all T-shirts with messages of any kind, so the judges felt the restriction is content-neutral.
The South Carolina Green Party will appeal its lawsuit over fusion to the 4th circuit. Yesterday the U.S. District Court had ruled against the party. South Carolina permits fusion, but says if a minor party nominee tries to get a major party nomination as well, and fails to win the major party primary, then the candidate can’t even keep his or her original minor party nomination and can’t run at all in November. Thanks to Gene Platt for this news.
On August 13, the North Carolina Libertarian Party received $39,691 from the State Board of Elections. UPDATE: Democrats received $429,736; Republicans $264,951. This money is from the North Carolina state income tax forms. Those forms permit taxpayers to send a small donation to the party of their choice. This is the first time the Libertarian Party has received such funds in North Carolina since 2003, when it received $701. North Carolina law says only parties with registration of 1% should be on the tax form. However, the official who printed the tax forms late last year ignored that law, and printed the Libertarian Party on the form anyway, even though its registration was only .07%. The registration was low because all the party’s registrants had been erased in late 2005 because the party did not requalify quickly for 2006; instead it requalified in 2008 and remains qualified.
On August 12, a New York Supreme Court Justice put New York city councilmember Alan Gerson back on the Democratic Party primary ballot. Gerson is running for re-election. The Board of Elections had removed him because of a cover sheet error (a cover sheet must accompany all petitions in New York state; no other state has such a thing). See this story. The man who challenged Gerson’s petition is appealing to the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division; that hearing is set for Tuesday, August 18.
The New York Daily News of August 12 has this story about petitioning candidates for New York city Mayor starting to submit their petitions. The deadline is not until August 18, but already the Socialist Workers Party, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, have submitted their petitions.
