On March 31, U.S. District Court Judge Philip Brimmer issued an opinion in Colorado Republican Party v Griswold, 1:23cv-1948. Existing law says that parties must let independents vote in their primaries. It also says that if a party which otherwise is entitled to a primary doesn’t want a primary, it is free to nominate by party meeeting. But, existing law says the party can’t switch to nomination by meeting unless three-fourths of the delegates to the state party convention agree.

The decision says the three-fourths provision violates Freedom of Association. Assuming the decision is not overturned on appeal, this probably means that parties can decide what type of nomination process to use by majority vote.

On April 1, some Florida voting rights groups filed a federal lawsuit against the new law that requires voter registration applicants to furnish documentary oroof of citizenship. Unidosus v Byrd, s.d., 1:26cv-22257. Here is the Complaint. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Jacqueline Becerra, a Biden appointee.

On April 1, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court will hear In the Matter of Request for Opinion of the Justices, OJ-26-1. This is a lawsuit over whether it is possible for the legislature to pass a law that makes ranked choice voting conform to the state Constitution, for general elections for state office. Currently Maine uses ranked choice voting for primaries, and for general elections for federal office. But a 2017 opinion of the Supreme Judicial Court makes it impossible to use ranked choice voting for general elections for state office. The leaders of the legislature filed this lawsuit, hoping to reverse the 2017 opinion. Here is the brief of the legislature leaders.