On October 10, the faction of the Michigan Libertarian Party that is not recognized by the Libertarian National Committee filed this brief in Libertarian National Committee v Saliba, e.d., 5:23cv-11074. The brief asks the U.S. District Court to stay the injunction that does not let them refer to themselves as Libertarians.
This Politico story says Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has received approximately $11,000,000 within the first 24 hours after his announcement that he will be an independent presidential candidate. Thanks to Darcy Richardson for the link.
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.
