On December 5, at 5 pm central time, filing closed for Republicans running in the Illinois presidential primary. Candidates needed 3,000 signatures. The Illinois State Board of Elections web site shows that the following Republicans filed: Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Alan Keyes, John McCain, James Creighton Mitchell, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Tom Tancredo, and Fred Thompson.

The web site shows that Mike Huckabee did not file until 4:56 pm on November 5. The State Board of Elections did not post notice that he had filed for 45 minutes. An earlier post here wondered if Huckabee had filed, but he did.

Oklahoma’s presidential primary filing ended on December 5. Candidates were required to pay $2,500. Eleven Republicans and seven Democrats filed. The most notable candidate who didn’t file was Joe Biden.

Republicans who filed are Jerry Curry of Haymarket, Virginia; Daniel Gilbert of North Carolina; and the candidates who have been generally getting on presidential primary ballots: Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Alan Keyes, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Tom Tancredo, and Fred Thompson.

Democrats who filed are Jim Rogers of Midwest City, Oklahoma; and these candidates who have generally been getting on primary ballots: Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson.

On December 5, Ralph Nader filed this response brief in Serody v Nader, the case over whether his bank in the District of Columbia should be required to give about $80,000 of Nader’s money to the people who challenged his petition in Pennsylvania in 2004.

The rebuttal brief is only 10 pages. Nader had already pointed out to the D.C. court that the Pennsylvania court order should not be blindly accepted, because the proceedings before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had been tainted. Nader had earlier alleged to the D.C. court that the attorneys for his opponents had close ties to various members of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that had not been revealed.

The response by Nader’s opponents had been to confirm the truth of Nader’s charges, but to say that no law had been broken. The recent Nader response points out that legality is not the point. Judicial ethics rules require attorneys to reveal connections between themselves and the judges hearing their case.