On November 10, a U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, Florida, held oral arguments in Ausman v Browning, 4:07-cv-519. This is the interesting case on whether or not Florida is violating the First Amendment rights of the national Democratic Party, by holding its presidential primary so early as to violate the national party rules. See this article. The plaintiff is a member of the Democratic National Committee; he is also an official in the Florida state Democratic Party. National Democratic rules forbid presidential primaries earlier than February, except for New Hampshire and South Carolina. But Florida law sets the presidential primary in January.

Ausman failed to get injunctive relief in time for the Democratic convention of 2008, but he hopes to win declaratory relief, which would have an impact on future presidential elections.

This year, five registered Greens ran for the Florida legislature. They were all individuals who were completely unknown to the Green Party leadership. But because the Florida law was changed in 2007 to provide that all parties (not just the parties with registration of 5%, meaning the Democrats and Republicans) nominate by primary, it was easy for anyone to register into any party and file for that party’s primary, regardless of the wishes of a minor party’s leadership.

News stories said that all five Greens had only been registered in the Green Party for a few weeks before they filed. Some had previously been registered Republican, some independent, and some had not even been previously registered. Reporters suspected that Republicans had recruited them to run so as to increase the chances that Republicans would win the legislative seats in question. That may or may not be true. In any event, none of the 5 Greens seem to have changed the identity of the winners in those 5 races. In three of the races (State Senate districts 25 and 27, and State House district 44) the Republican nominee won over 50% of the total vote. In the other two (State House districts 69 and 81), although no one received as much as 50% of the total vote, Democrats won both seats.

On November 10, an assorted group of political activists and party officials sued in federal court to force New York city to keep term limits in place for Mayor and City Council. See this article. It is not immediately obvious what in the U.S. Constitution pertains to this issue. Check back for more information later.