Back on February 1, a U.S. District Court in Oregon had ruled that signers of initiative or referendum petitions do not have a due process right to have their signatures counted. Plaintiffs have filed an appeal with the 9th circuit. The case is Lemons v Bradbury, 08-35209.

On March 24, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, 07-953. This is the case brought by people who wanted to make and advertise a film that would be shown in theaters and would try to make a profit. Yet the subject of the film would be to attack Hillary Clinton. The group wanted to be free of campaign finance reporting requirements.

Technically, the Court ruled that it doesn’t have jurisdiction to hear this case, because of procedural problems. This is slightly different than merely choosing not to hear the case.

The nation’s first winning challenge to open primaries (as opposed to blanket primaries and top-two primaries) is now over. The case Miller v Brown, from Virginia, has ended. This is the case in which the Republican Party of Virginia sued in 2005, alleging that it has a constitutional right to exclude non-members from its primaries. Both the US District Court, and the 4th Circuit, gave partial relief. The period for either side to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court has ended, and neither side sought U.S. Supreme Court intervention.

So, the decision stands. The Republican Party bylaw can be implemented in cases in which the party is being forced to hold a primary. But it may not be implemented in situations in which the party is free to decide whether to use a primary or a convention or caucus. The Bylaw says any subunit of the party may require that people who voted in the Democratic primary in the last five years cannot vote in a Republican primary unless they sign a pledge that they are loyal Republicans.

The only other lawsuit pending against open primaries is the Mississippi Democratic case, which is pending in the 5th circuit.