On Friday, February 1, a jury in central Florida finished deliberating in the criminal case filed by the Internal Revenue Service against movie actor Wesley Snipes. Snipes was acquited of the most serious charges.

The law firm that had been handling the Snipes defense, the Bernhoft firm of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is committed to doing what it can to fight restrictive ballot access laws. It is handling the Nader case against several Arizona ballot access laws (now awaiting a hearing in the 9th circuit), and it won a case for the Constitution Party in Wisconsin that struck down a law on out-of-state circulators. However, the firm had been so involved with the Snipes defense that it had been unable to file any new cases. Now that impediment is removed.

There are ballot access laws in several states that, under precedent, are unconstitutional, but there has been a shortage of attorneys willing to take on these cases.

See here for an account of Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s radio interview of February 1.

The Rolla Daily News of Rolla, Missouri, on Saturday, February 2, made editorial endorsements in the presidential primaries of all three ballot-qualified parties in Missouri. In the Libertarian primary, the newspaper endorsed George Phillies. See it here. Rolla is in central Missouri, southeast of Jefferson City. Thanks to ThirdPartyWatch for this.

Other Libertarians on the Missouri presidential primary ballot are Dave Hollist, Daniel Imperato, Michael Jingozian, Steve Kubby, and Wayne Allyn Root.

The editorial also endorsed Mike Huckabee for Republicans, and Barack Obama for Democrats.