U.S. District Court Judge Harold Murphy will hold a trial on August 22 in Common Cause v Billups, 4:05-cv-201, in Rome, Georgia. This is the case over Georgia’s modified law requiring voters at the polls to show a government photo-ID. The case had been filed in 2005. The original law had been invalidated by Judge Murphy. Then the 2006 session of the legislature had modified it somewhat, but not enough to satisfy the plaintiffs. Then the federal case had been put on hold while a similar case worked its way through state court. However, the state case was eliminated when the Georgia Supreme Court said the plaintiffs in the state case lack standing. Therefore, the action moves back to Judge Murphy’s court.

An earlier post on August 6 has links to the briefs of the political parties to the U.S. Supreme Court, in the “top-two” case called Washington State v Washington Republican Party. In the interests of fairness, here are the two briefs on the side of the “top-two” proponents, the state of Washington and the Grange. The state’s brief is here; the Grange brief is here.

On August 6, three Washington state political parties filed their briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court. These briefs argue against the “top-two” Washington state election system. For the Republican brief, see here; for the Democratic brief, here; the Libertarian brief is here.

Also, Louisiana filed an amicus with the U.S. Supreme Court. Although the cover says it is in support of the state of Washington, it actually is strictly neutral, and merely says that just because the Court may rule against Washington state, that there are reasons why Louisiana’s system (for state elections) should still be considered constitutional. Louisiana’s system for state elections is somewhat similar to Washington’s system.

Washington has not actually used its “top-two” system yet, because it was passed by the voters in November 2004, but declared unconstitutional in 2005 by a U.S. District Court, a decision that the 9th circuit affirmed in 2006.