On January 2, the Colorado voters who sued in state court to keep Donald Trump off the Republican presidential primary ballot filed their response in the U.S. Supreme Court.  See it here.

Generally, when the winners in the court below address the U.S. Supreme Court before the Court has accepted the appeal, the winners in the court below ask the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear the case.  But in this instance, the winners in the court below do want the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case.  They request that the Court decide by January 5 whether to take the case.  And they say that if the Court takes the case, they want the Court to decide the case on or before February 11.

January 2, 2024, is the deadline for a group to qualify as a political party in Maine.  A group or party needs 5,000 registered members to obtain or keep qualified status.  Already the Democratic, Republican, Green Independent, and No Labels Party had enough registrants.  The Libertarian Party’s recent new registrations give it approximately 5,400 registered members, so it is likely it is also back on the ballot.

A strong case can be made that the deadline is unconstitutionally early, based on a 2016 U.S. District Court decision that struck down the former December (of the year before the election) deadline.  In response to the lawsuit decision, the legislature only improved the deadline by a few weeks, which probably still isn’t constitutional, although there is probably no group that was seriously planning to qualify as a party anyway, other than the parties that appear to have qualified.

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.