On January 21, the Libertarian and Green Parties filed their brief with the North Carolina State Court of Appeals. The case is Libertarian Party of N.C. et al v State, COA08-1413. The brief focuses mostly on the ballot access laws, but it also includes other election law issues, such as the state’s policy of forcing all minor party registrants to become independents, when their party goes off the ballot.

The state will probably file its brief in late February, and then the case will be set for oral argument. Thanks to Sean Haugh for this news.

For the recent past period, Germany has been governed by a coalition of the nation’s two largest parties, the Christian Democratic Union and the Socialist Party. However, that coalition appeared to lose its majority in the Bundesrat (the German “Senate”), after the January 18 election for state office in Hesse. Hesse is one of Germany’s most important states, and contains Frankfurt. German state governments have input into the Bundesrat.

At the January 18 state election in Hesse, the Free Democratic Party made such strong gains, and the Socialist Party did so poorly, that the new Hesse government will be composed of a Free Democratic-Christian Democratic coalition. That automatically eliminated the majority in the federal Bundesrat for the national governing coalition of the Christian Democrats and Socialist Party. But, then the Green Party elected to support the federal coalition in the Bundesrat in order to keep it from being dependent on the Free Democratic Party, as this article in the Financial Times explains.

On January 21, Free and Equal held a press conference in the Capital Press Room in the Illinois legislature in Springfield. Here is the news coverage from the Springfield daily newspaper. Free and Equal will have several arms. One will be a lobbying group. Already, Free & Equal has identified an Illinois State Senator who is likely to introduce a bill soon to improve ballot access in that state.

Another arm of Free and Equal will be to provide paid petitioning teams for independent and minor party candidates.

Christina Tobin conceived of Free and Equal. She is well-positioned for that work. She is the daughter of James Tobin, the Libertarian Party nominee for Governor of Illinois in 1998. Tobin was kept off the ballot by a challenge to the Libertarian statewide petition, even though the petition-checking process showed that he had enough valid signatures and was otherwise qualified. One could say that the experience radicalized Tobin. Tobin gained valuable experience in managing petition drives, by doing that work nationwide for Ralph Nader in 2008.