California AB 1396, to delete from the election law some provisions that tell the Democratic Party how to structure itself, has already passed the Assembly and the Senate Elections Committee. However, it has been put on the inactive file in the Senate at the author’s request. The state Democratic Party wants some amendments, and hasn’t yet supplied the exact language of those amendments.
On July 16, U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land, a Bush, Jr. appointee in the Middle District of Georgia, dismissed one of the “birth certificate” cases on presidential qualifications. The plaintiff, a soldier, had said he had standing because Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama had ordered him to Afghanistan. However, his deployment order was cancelled earlier this month, so the judge ruled that the plaintiff lacks standing. See this article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The case is Stefan Cook v Wanda Good, 4:2009cv-00082. It had been filed on July 9, 2009.
On July 16, U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land, a Bush, Jr. appointee in the Middle District of Georgia, dismissed one of the “birth certificate” cases on presidential qualifications. The plaintiff, a soldier, had said he had standing because Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama had ordered him to Afghanistan. However, his deployment order was cancelled earlier this month, so the judge ruled that the plaintiff lacks standing. See this article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The case is Stefan Cook v Wanda Good, 4:2009cv-00082. It had been filed on July 9, 2009.
At the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on July 15, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold asked Judge Sonia Sotomayor about the pending U.S. Supreme Court case Citizens United v Federal Election Commission. That case will be re-argued on September 9, and concerns the interpretation and constitutionality of part of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. Specifically, the case concerns the ability of a corporation to advertise on TV or radio for its own movie, if that movie mentions a candidate for federal office within 60 days of a primary or a general election in which that candidate is running.
Senator Feingold asked, “Without addressing the specifics of the Citizen United case, I’d like to ask you what the Constitution and the Supreme Court’s precedents generally provide about the rights of corporations and what the current state of the law as far as corporate participation in elections is, as you understand it.”
Sotomayor replied, “If I were confirmed for the Court, it would be the first case that I would participate in. I think it would be inappropriate for me to do anything to speak about that area of the law because it would suggest that I’m going into that process with some prejudgment about what precedent says and what it doesn’t say and how to apply it in the open question the court is considering.” Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for the transcript of Sotomayor’s hearing on election law issues.
The July 15 issue of National Journal has this interesting article about voting rights for citizens who live in the District of Columbia. The article mentions Congressmember Dana Rohrabacher’s HR 665, which would provide that for voting in Congressional elections, D.C. would be deemed to be part of Maryland, so that Maryland would have an additional U.S. House seat.
