The U.S. Supreme Court, for several decades, has generally only heard two oral arguments per day. According to Howard Bashman’s How Appealing Blog, the Chief Justice has just said at a judicial conference that the Court will start hearing three cases per day in the autumn 2008 season. This is good news for groups that are seeking to have the Supreme Court hear their cases.
On June 3, the group that favors using Instant-Runoff Voting for St. Paul, Minnesota, city elections, submitted its initiative petition. Assuming it has enough valid signatures, the voters will vote in November. Thanks to Rob Richie for the news.
The Mississippi Democratic Party has its state convention on June 7, Saturday. A big topic will be whether to file a new lawsuit to obtain a closed primary. The party’s first case on this subject, filed in 2006, was rejected by the 5th circuit earlier this month because the party hadn’t passed Bylaws (and hadn’t had them cleared by the US Justice Department) explaining exactly what it wants. Thanks to Steve Rankin for this news.
Meanwhile, the Idaho Republican Party case on the same subject is alive, but moving slowly. The case was filed on April 11 but the attorney for the Republican Party didn’t serve the papers on the Secretary of State until May 22. Because of the manner of service used by the Republican Party, the state need not respond until July.
The Manhatten Branch of the Libertarian Party of New York is likely to nominate Francis M. Powers, age 47, for the U.S. House seat, 13th district. The 13th district is centered on Staten Island. The incumbent, Republican Vito Fossella, is not running for re-election.
What makes this newsworthy is that the Republican nominee for the same seat will probably be Frank H. Powers, who is the father of Francis M. Powers. See this article. The Libertarian local nominating convention is June 9. The younger Powers says he is not running in order to damage his father; instead, he says he is running to reduce the chances that the Republicans can keep the seat. If by any chance the Libertarians don’t nominate him, he says he will run under an Anarchy ticket. In either case, he needs 3,500 signatures by late August in order to be on the November ballot.
Alabama and New Jersey held primaries (for office other than president) on June 3. The turnout in both states was very low. In Alabama, only 14% of the registered voters voted. The New Jersey percentage has not been calculated, but it clearly was unusually low. New Jersey Assemblyman Michael Doherty has just introduced a bill (no bill number assigned yet) to put the New Jersey presidential primary back in June, to be simultaneous with the primary for other offices.
