All three briefs have now been filed in the U.S. Supreme Court in Kidwell v City of Union, Ohio, no. 06-1226. The issue is whether government can spend public tax dollars to advertise for or against an initiative. The 6th circuit had ruled 2-1 that governments may spend such money. The next stage is that the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether or not to take the case.
On April 23, a U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, Florida, decided that a jury trial will be held starting June 18, 2007, to help determine who are the legitimate national officers of the Reform Party. The case is Reform Party USA v O’Hara, 4:05cv426. The lawsuit was filed in 2005 by Charles Foster, Ruben Hernandez and Beverly Kennedy in the name of the Reform Party, against three other groups which hold themselves out to be the national officers of the Reform Party.
This lawsuit is probably the first lawsuit in U.S. history in which a court will determine who the national officers of any political party are. There have been hundreds of lawsuits over the centuries to determine who the state party officers are, of various state parties, major and minor. But as far as is known, this is the first such lawsuit over national party officers. Thanks to Jerry Heinemann for this news.
On April 23, a new party submitted enough valid signatures to qualify for the Puerto Rican ballot. It is the Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico Party. Puerto Rico requires a petition signed by 5% of the number of registered voters, for a new party to qualify. This is the first time a new party has qualified in Puerto Rico since 1984. The party could not have succeeded, without the ballot access victory in the First Circuit in 2003. That case, called Perez Guzman v Gracia, struck down a Puerto Rico law that said no one could circulate the petition for a new party unless that person was both an attorney and a notary public. The First Circuit, based in Boston, has jurisdiction over Puerto Rico as well as over four New England states.
On April 23, Yahoo!, The Huffington Post, and Slate, jointly announced that they will sponsor two primary season presidential debates, one for Republicans and one for Democrats. These will be on-line debates, probably in September 2007. They will be restricted to candidates who have announced their candidacies, and they will probably also be restricted to those Republican and Democratic presidential candidates who have been accepted by those parties as “legitimate.” In recent decades, the two major parties have been in the habit of compiling a list of “legitimate” candidates, those who are invited into party-sponsored debates. Generally one needs to be, or have been, a federal office-holder or a Governor to get onto this list, although Wesley Clark and Al Sharpton made it onto the Democratic list in 2004.
On April 23, Yahoo!, The Huffington Post, and Slate, jointly announced that they will sponsor two primary season presidential debates, one for Republicans and one for Democrats. These will be on-line debates, probably in September 2007. They will be restricted to candidates who have announced their candidacies, and they will probably also be restricted to those Republican and Democratic presidential candidates who have been accepted by those parties as “legitimate.” In recent decades, the two major parties have been in the habit of compiling a list of “legitimate” candidates, those who are invited into party-sponsored debates. Generally one needs to be, or have been, a federal office-holder or a Governor to get onto this list, although Wesley Clark and Al Sharpton made it onto the Democratic list in 2004.
