On January 21, the 10th circuit refused to rehear Yes on Term Limits v Savage, no. 07-6233. This is the case in which the 10th circuit had struck down Oklahoma’s ban on out-of-state initiative circulators, back on December 18. The state had asked for an en banc rehearing, but no judge wanted to rehear the case.
On January 15, 2009, the Pennsylvania Green Party’s US Senate candidate from 2006, Carl Romanelli, again asked the Commonwealth Court for relief from having to pay over $80,000 to the people who challenged his petition. Here is his brief. It mentions the constitutional issue, and argues that U.S. Supreme Court precedent suggests that voters and candidates cannot be charged for the costs of administering elections, particularly if they can’t afford it.
On January 21, the challengers filed a brief in response, but the response brief completely ignores the constitutional argument.
On January 16, U.S. District Court Judge John P. Bailey ruled that the lawsuit Constitution Party of West Virginia v Jezioro, no. 2:08-cv-61, should proceed to trial. The party had filed the lawsuit on April 18, 2008, against the state Division of Natural Resources, over whether the state was unconstitutionally preventing the party from circulating its ballot access petition in state parks. The Division of Natural Resources had then tried to get the case dismissed without a trial, but the Court issued a 17-page ruling saying that a trial is needed. Judge Bailey is a Bush Jr. appointee at the federal court in Elkins.
On January 21, the U.S. Supreme Court unsurprisingly denied Phil Berg’s request for a stay, in Berg v Obama, 08A505. That is the last aspect of that particular case that had been in the U.S. Supreme Court. Phil Berg has been the nation’s most energetic proponent of the idea that the Courts should examine President Obama’s qualifications.
Eight South Carolina Representatives have introduced H3140, a bill to set up partisan registration in that state. The sponsors are Garry Smith (R-Simpsonville), Dan Hamilton (R-Taylors), Wendy Nanney (R-Greenville), Eric Bedingfield (R-Mauldin), James Harrison (R-Columbia), William Wylie (R-Simpsonville), Michael Pitts (R-Laurens), and Jim Merrill (R-Charleston).
In the last twenty years, the only two states that have added registration by party are Rhode Island and Utah.
