The U.S. Supreme Court will hear Citizens United v Federal Election Commission on September 9. The case concerns the McCain-Feingold campaign spending law. Amici curiae briefs are due by the end of the day, Friday, July 31. Already there seem to be at least 20 amici briefs in opposition to the law, 9 in favor, and 4 neutral. Some of the amici briefs are on behalf of many organizations. Some of these briefs are as long as 40 pages. UPDATE: some of these amici briefs had already been filed before the U.S. Supreme Court asked for re-argument.

The Federal Election Commission’s web page has this summary of the case, and links to the various briefs. See here. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for the link. The U.S. Supreme Court is perhaps fortunate that this is the only case it will be hearing in the next two months.

On July 30, the Supreme Court of the Navajo Nation ruled that two initiatives had successfully qualified for the Navajo ballot. The Court ordered the election to be held before the end of 2009. See this article. The Navajo Constitution provides for the initiative, if a petition signed by 15% of the qualified Navajo voters. The tribal administration had said the two initiatives did not have enough valid signatures, but the Court disagreed. The two initiatives concern (1) reducing the Tribal Council from 88 members to 24; (2) providing for a line-item veto.

The Moderate Party of Rhode Island will have collected 30,000 signatures on its petition to become a qualified party by Monday, August 3. The law requires 23,589 signatures, so the party believes that in four days, it will have enough valid signatures.

If the party has qualified, this is the first time any political party, or any statewide independent candidate, has completed a petition of 5% of the last vote cast since 2000, when the Libertarian Party, and the Reform Party, each completed Oklahoma’s 5% petition. Also, this is the first time a party has qualified itself using a 5% statewide petition in a midterm year since the Libertarian Party completed such a petition in Nevada in 1978 (Nevada eliminated its 5% petition requirement in 1987).