A trial will be held, starting January 31, to help Judge Michael Brenner decide who won the San Diego mayoral election last November. Brenner is a visiting superior court judge from Orange County; all of the San Diego County judges recused themselves. Although some of the issues are legal, others are factual, concerning the extent to which voters were told that write-ins would not count unless they checked the box next to the name written in.
The Vermont Progressive Party has 6 state legislators, the largest delegation of state legislators that any minor party has had in any state since 1944. Here is a link to that article.
On January 19, the US Supreme Court heard Clingman v Beaver, the case filed by the Oklahoma Libertarian Party in 2000. The issue is whether a party (which is entitled to nominate by primary) has the right, under the First Amendment freedom of association clause, to invite all registered voters to vote in its primary.
The US District Court had said “No”, but the US Court of Appeals, 10th circuit, had said “Yes”. The state of Oklahoma then appealed to the US Supreme Court.
At the hearing, Justice Antonin Scalia at first was hostile to the position of the Libertarian Party. However, as time went on, he became taciturn and appeared to be listening carefully to the attorney for the Libertarians, Jim Linger. Justices Souter, Kennedy, O’Connor and Stevens seemed sympathetic to the party. Justice Ginsburg and Breyer seemed undecided, and Justice Thomas was silent.
A much more detailed analysis will be printed in the Feb. 1, 2005 Ballot Access News.
On January 24, a visiting California Superior Court Judge from Orange County will hold a hearing in the case over who won the San Diego mayoral election.
The US Supreme Court will consider whether to hear Ralph Nader’s Oregon ballot access case at its conference of February 18. A decision as to whether that Court will accept the case will probably be announced on February 21. The issue is whether it is constitutional for an election official to create new rules for petition validity, after the petition has already been submitted. Kucera v Bradbury, no. 04-872.
