New York state and its allies have now filed their briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in N.Y. State Bd. of Elections v Lopez Torres, no. 06-766. Allied with the state on the merits are the New York State Republican Party, the Manhatten Democratic Party, the Association of State Supreme Court Justices, the Republican National Committee, New York’s Attorney General, and the Asian American Bar Association. Also, the Mid-Manhatten Branch of the NAACP and the Metropolitan Black Bar Association filed an amicus brief that seems to be neutral on the merits but argues that the relief ordered by the lower courts was wrong.

Groups that filed an amicus brief in the 2nd circuit on the state’s side, but did not bother to file an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on the state’s side, are the Women’s Bar Association of New York, the Staten Island Bar Association, and the New York state legislature.

The issue in the case is the method New York uses to nominate Supreme Court Justices. Judicial district conventions choose party nominees. Delegates to the district conventions need 500 signatures, collected in 37 days from party members in their own county (judicial districts are larger than counties). While that sounds easy, there are hundreds of delegates chosen. Anyone who wants to be nominated, and who doesn’t have the support of party leaders who get the party-backed slates of delegates on the primary ballot, must get his or her own delegates on the primary ballots. The task is so difficult, virtually no one ever gets on the primary ballot except slates of delegate candidates backed by the party organization. Then, since there is no primary contest, that office is simply removed from the primary ballot.

New York and its allies don’t argue that collecting all these signatures is easy. They just say that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t protect ballot access in partisan primaries. Also they say that the system was never designed for someone who wants a judicial nomination to recruit slates of delegates and organize petition drives to get them on the ballot.

Lopez Torres’ brief, and amici briefs from her allies, are due in June.

The West Virginia Democratic Party recently decided to choose all delegates to the national presidential convention in April, before the May presidential primary. Therefore, the May presidential primary will be mostly a “beauty contest” (i.e., the results will be analogous to a public opinion poll, but have no binding effect). The party also voted to let independents vote in its primaries in 2008. Although, in the past, West Virginia Republicans have let independents vote in their primary, this is the first time West Virginia Democrats have permitted independents to vote.

On May 10, the 3rd circuit ruled that U.S. citizens living in the Virgin Islands may not vote for president. Ballentine v U.S.A, no. 06-4800. The irony is that U.S. citizens who move permanently to a foreign country may continue to vote absentee, forever. They retain their registration in the last state in the U.S. in which they lived. But should they then move to a U.S. territorial possessions, they lose that absentee vote. The 3rd circuit did not write its own opinion; it just it agrees with the U.S. District Court ruling.