On June 10, the Federal Election Commission notified Howie Hawkins that he will not receive any primary season matching funds from his 2020 presidential campaign for the Green Party nomination. Although the FEC acknowledges that Howie received enough donations to qualify, it says he missed a procedural deadline.
On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court released its opinion in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 19-1392. It says that the U.S. Constitution has no applicability to any ban on abortion whatsoever. The decision leaves state legislatures the power to outlaw all abortions, even from the point of conception. If a legislature provides no exceptions whatsoever, even concerning the life or health of the pregnant woman, the Constitution has nothing to say about that.
Public opinion polls recently have shown substantial support for allowing early abortion, yet many state legislatures are, or have recently, shown that they want to ban even the earliest abortions. Therefore, it is somewhat likely that there will soon be many initiative petitions to repeal state legislative restrictions on certain abortions. But, the statewide initiative only exists in 22 states: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Some might list Illinois, but realistically, Illinois does not have the statewide initiative process.
Democratic Party legislators are almost entirely pro-choice. Democratic state legislators also tend to be opposed to the initiative process. But as the initiative process becomes an important arena for pro-choice activism, this may lead more Democratic politicians to support the initiative process. States without the statewide initiative process, but which have Democratic majorities in both houses of the legislature, are Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois realistically, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Perhaps a movement to create a national initiative process will arise.
Insider New Jersey has this story about the lawsuit Conforti v Hanlon, 3:20cv-8267. This is the federal lawsuit that challenges the New Jersey practice of giving some candidates in primary elections better positions on the ballot. On May 31, the judge refused to dismiss the case, and wrote an order strongly suggesting that the practice will be held unconstitutional. The story explains how ballot format virtually dictates who wins and who loses.
New Jersey (except for two counties) has the same problem for its general election ballots, and a win in the primary case will impact the general election ballot also.
On June 23, U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson, a Carter appointee, refused to dismiss part of the lawsuit Greater Birmingham Ministries v Merrill, m.d., 2:22cv-205. This is the case over access to the list of voters who have been purged. The case is based on the federal voting rights act.
The state had tried to persuade the judge that the federal Voting Rights Act doesn’t apply, because the Act only talks about a “photocopy” of the list of registered voters. The state said the plaintiffs want an electronic copy, and the Act doesn’t mention electronic copies. Of course, when the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, there was no such concept. But the judge denied the state’s request.
On June 22, Pennsylvania SB 428 passed the House State Government Committee by 16-8. It moves the primary for all office, but only in presidential years, from the fourth Tuesday in April to the third Tuesday in March. The bill passed the State Senate unanimously back on December 14, 2021.
If the bill passes, it will have no effect on the petition deadline for independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties.
