On August 8, the San Diego city council voted to ban write-in votes in city run-off elections. The bill passed unanimously. Even Donna Frye voted for it, even though she was herself a write-in candidate for Mayor in the November 2004 mayoral run-off.
On August 9, the US Court of Appeals, DC circuit, issued its opinion in Initiative and Referendum Institute v US Postal Service, 04-5045. By a vote of 3-0, that Court ruled that at least some post office sidewalks are public fora. They also concluded that petitioning cannot be banned on such sidewalks. These would be sidewalks that people would use, even if they weren’t going to the post office building itself. They would be sidewalks that are parallel to streets.
The Court of Appeals remanded the case back to the US District Court (which had upheld the postal regulation) to determine whether a substantial portion of all post office-owned sidewalks are the type of sidewalks that are parallel to streets. If the answer is “yes”, then the postal regulation is unconstitutional on its face. It seems obvious that the answer will be “yes”.
Probably the post office will now re-write its regulation, rather than going through the expense and uncertainty of more litigation. The probable outcome will be a new postal regulation that differentiates between types of sidewalks; or possibly the post office will just drop its ban on petitioning on its own sidewalks.
The court did not say that the interior sidewalks are necessarily off-limits to petitioning. This has not been decided yet. The decision will be in effect when the government’s 45-day period to ask for a rehearing is up (Sep. 23).
On August 2, President Bush signed HR 2985 into law. It requires the states to hold special elections to fill vacancies in the US House, within 47 days after any event which causes the death of at least 100 members of the House. Congress had approved the bill on July 26. The bill passed 305-122 in the House, and 96-4 in the Senate.
On August 6, Michael Badnarik (who was the Libertarian Party presidential nominee last year) announced that he will run for US House, Texas 10th district, next year.
Meeting in Kansas City on August 6-7, the Libertarian Party’s national committee altered the definition of “membership” in the national party. National membership will no longer be linked to the payment of national dues. Dues had been $25 per year for decades, and earlier this year they had been raised to $50. The Libertarian Party, along with the various parties that hold themselves out as socialist, had been the only nationally-organized parties in the U.S. in which dues were required for membership.
