No U.S. Supreme Court Action on Election Law Cases This Week

Posted on by February 20, 2008
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Although the U.S. Supreme Court released four opinions on February 20, it did not release any election law opinion. The two cases that are awaiting a decision are Washington State v Washington State Republican Party, and Crawford v Marion County, Indiana. The next date for release of opinions is February 25.

On February 22, the Court will again consider whether to hear Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, but any news about that will not be released until February 25. Citizens United concerns whether the makers of a movie that criticizes Hillary Clinton must reveal the names of people who contributed money toward advertising that movie.

The North Carolina redistricting case, called Bartlett v Strickland, had been on conference earlier this week, but the Court didn’t decide whether to accept it. No new conference date to reconsider that case has been set.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Founder of Natural Law Parties of the World, Dies

Posted on by February 19, 2008
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Maharishi Mahesh Yogi died at his home in The Netherlands on February 6, 2008. He was age 91. In 1992 he told his followers all over the world to found Natural Law Parties in their own nation.

The U.S. Natural Law Party was founded in April 1992, and managed to place its presidential candidate, John Hagelin, on the ballot in 28 states that year, an outstanding achievement for a party organized that late. The party disbanded in 2004, although its Michigan unit is still ballot-qualified. During the party’s lifetime, it won two constitutional ballot access cases. It won a case against the Kansas law that said a party could have only one word in its name. It also won against the South Carolina law that said a new party had to hold conventions in the spring of the election year.