Texas Republican Party Says Initiative Petition on Secession is Invalid

Posted on by January 2, 2024
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On December 27, the Texas Republican Party said the initiative petition for secession is invalid.  Texas does not have the statewide initiative for state laws or constitutional amendments, but Texas does permit statewide advisory initiatives on partisan primary ballots.  Such petitions for the Republican Party in 2024 require 97,709 signatures.  A group that supports secession from the United States submitted 139,000 signatures.

The party says the initiative petition was due on December 10, the day before the candidate filing petition deadline.  December 10, 2023, was a Sunday, and the Republican Party’s office, which is the place to submit the petitions, was not even open that day.  The group supporting the initiative believes the deadline is December 11, and submitted the petition that day.

Also, the party also says most of the signatures were electronic, and disputes that such signatures are valid.

The sponsors of the initiative say they will file a lawsuit to valid their petition.  The lawsuit will need to move fast; the primary is March 5.  See this story.  Thanks Jim Riley for this news.

U.S. District Court in West Virginia Dismisses Lawsuit Designed to Keep Donald Trump Off the West Virginia Republican Primary Ballot

Posted on by January 1, 2024
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On December 21, U.S. District Court Judge Irene C. Berger, an Obama appointee, dismissed John Anthony Castro’s lawsuit on whether Donald Trump should be on the West Virginia Republican presidential primary ballot.  Castro v Warner, s.d., 2:23cv-598.  Here is the decision.

No one is yet on the West Virginia Republican primary ballot, which will be held May 14.  Castro asserted that he will be on the ballot.  The decision assumes that is true, but says because his campaign is so weak, he doesn’t have standing.  Castro has appealed to the Fourth Circuit.

Nevada Republican Party Files a Brief in the Nevada Trump Ballot Access Case

Posted on by January 1, 2024
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On December 26, the Nevada Republican Party filed this brief in Castro v Aguilar, 2:23cv-1387.  This is the lawsuit filed by John Anthony Castro to keep former President Donald Trump off the ballot in the Nevada Republican presidential primary.

Castro’s Nevada lawsuit is his weakest lawsuit, because, as the Republican Party explains, Donald Trump isn’t even participating in the state-administered Nevada Republican presidential primary.  Instead he and most of the other strong contenders for the Republican nomination are using the Nevada Republican caucus.  The Nevada Republican Party refused to let anyone compete in its caucus if that person ran in the government-administered presidential primary.

Lawsuit Against the Nation’s Worst Ballot Access Law is Still Alive

Posted on by January 1, 2024
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The nation’s worst ballot access law, by far, is Georgia’s law on how a candidate gets on the general election ballot for U.S. House if the candidate is not the nominee of a party that got 20% of the vote in the last presidential or gubernatorial election.

The law, passed in 1943, requires a petition of 5% of the registered voters.  In practice, this has proved so difficult that no third party candidate has ever done it, and no independent has done it since 1964, when details of the petition requirement were far easier than they are now.

The Georgia Libertarian Party sued to overturn this law in 2017, and the case is still pending.  The party lost on the First Amendment issues in the Eleventh Circuit after it had won on those issues in the U.S. District Court.

Last year, the party also lost on the Equal Protection issues in U.S. District Court, but the court made a clear error on procedure and on December 4, 2023, the party requested a rehearing, which is still pending.  Cowen v Rafflesperger, n.d., 1:17cv-4660.

Democratic Presidential Debates

Posted on by December 31, 2023
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Even though President Joe Biden is not expected to debate anyone else who is seeking the Democratic nomination, there will be some Democratic primary season debates.

On January 8, Dean Phillips will debate Marianne Williamson.  See this story.

Also, Free & Equal expects to sponsor a Democratic debate on either January 17 or January 18, and to invite every Democrat who is on the primary ballot in at least five states, although that requirement is not definite yet.