On October 10, former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, told Bloomberg News that he hasn’t ruled out the idea of seeking the presidential nomination of No Labels Party. See this story.
Hogan was elected Governor in 2014 and re-elected in 2018.
On October 10, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Don Blankenship’s libel case against some big media organziations. Blankenship was the Constitution Party’s nominee for president in 2020, although the case did not involve the 2020 election. Instead, it focuses on Blankenship’s race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator from West Virginia. He lost that 2018 primary, but it is somewhat plausible that he could have won if many media stories had not printed and broadcast that he was a “convicted felon.” He was never convicted of a felony, and his lawsuit charged that because they knew he was not a convicted felon, he should have been able to prevail in lower court when he sued them for libel.
Blankenship v NBC, 22-1125.
The U.S. Supreme Court had Blankenship v NBC on its September 26, 2023 conference, and took no action. Then they considered it again last week and on October 10 said they won’t take it. But U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was interested enough in the case that he wrote his own opinion explaining why he didn’t vote to hear it. See it here. Scroll down to the very end. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for this news.
Here is the last brief filed in the case in the U.S. Supreme Court, the reply brief by Blankenship.
The Hill has this essay by Kevin R. Kosar, an expert on Congress, on what it would be like if no presidential candidate gets an electoral college majority in December 2024. Article II says the U.S. House chooses the president when that happens, with each state’s delegation casting one vote and a majority of the state delegates needed to choose the new president. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
On September 29, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold filed this brief on Anderson v Griswold, 2023cv-32577, Denver District Court. This is the lawsuit on whether former President Donald Trump should be on the March 2024 Colorado Republican primary ballot. On page five the Secretary says, “The Secretary agrees that constitutionally ineligible candidates should not be included on a ballot.”
The Secretary of State cites nothing for this statement, and ignores Colorado and national history. In 1972 Colorado put Linda Jenness on its November ballot, and she was only 33 years old at the time. She was the Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate that year and she made no secret of her age.
The only states that have never printed the name of an ineligible presidential or vice-presidential candidate on the general election ballot are Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, and Oklahoma. In 1892, all states in the union at that time printed the name of the Prohibition Party vice-presidential candidate on the ballot, and he was only age 33 and campaigned making frequent mention of his age. The only 1892 exception was South Dakota, the only state in which the Prohibition Party failed to get on the ballot that year. However in 1972, South Dakota printed Linda Jenness’ name on the ballot.
As to the states that weren’t yet in the union in 1892, Utah printed Eugene Puryear, the name of the Party for Socialism & Liberation’s vice-presidential candidate in 2008 and he was under-age. New Mexico printed Linda Jenness’ name on the ballot in 1972.
Here is a story on RFK, Jr.’s announcement in Philadelphia on October 9, 2023.
There had been speculation that he might seek the nomination of the Libertarian Party for President of the United States, but that, at least for now, is not the case.
