Cook County Clerk Loses Bid to Be Freed From Oversight
A federal appeals panel affirmed a decision that the Chicago-area clerk’s office needs an independent monitor in place to prevent political hiring and firing.
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political parties
Turkish High Court Rejects Bid to Close Opposition Party
Citing procedural deficiencies, Turkey’s highest court on Wednesday rejected an indictment by a top prosecutor seeking to disband the country’s opposition pro-Kurdish party for alleged links to Kurdish militants, the state-run news agency reported.
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German Court Blocks Surveillance of Far-Right Party
A German court on Friday ordered a temporary halt to plans by the domestic intelligence agency to spy on the far-right AfD party for posing a threat to democracy.
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Far-Right Party Draws Scrutiny From Germany’s Intel Agency
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has put the Alternative for Germany party under observation due to suspicions of extreme-right sympathies, German media reported Wednesday, a move against the biggest opposition party in parliament that comes only six months before a national election.
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Hungary Pulls Its Ruling Party Out of EU’s Conservatives
Hungary’s governing party pulled out of its conservative group in the European Union’s legislature on Wednesday following years of conflict over the rule of law and European values.
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Can ‘Super Mario’ Save Italy? Virus-Stricken Country Pins Hopes on Former Banker
Italy’s government crisis may be over for now after Mario Draghi, a former European Central Bank president, was appointed prime minister over the weekend. He is viewed by many as the best choice to lead Italy’s recovery from the pandemic.
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Second Circuit Keeps New York Ballot Rules in Place
New York’s law overcame a challenge from a group that lost its political party status after declining to pick a presidential candidate for the 2020 election.
Read morePolitical Parties
The Ninth Circuit dismissed the Common Sense Party’s challenge to the California election code requiring new political parties that wish to participate in a presidential election to obtain voter registrations equal to 0.33% of the number of registered voters in California.
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Second Circuit Hears Appeal Over New York Ballot Access
While a state election law complaint proceeds in federal court, a New York political party asked a circuit panel to block new rules requiring it to pick a presidential candidate to gain ballot access.
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Delaware’s Partisan Playbook for Court Appointments Survives Suit
The Supreme Court was mostly unanimous Thursday in throwing out a challenge to Delaware’s system of keeping the state’s judicial seats split between the nation’s two major political parties.
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Poll Finds Sharp Divide on Election Integrity After Biden Win
A new survey conducted a week after the election found Trump supporters’ suspicions of voter fraud and election corruption have only strengthened since Joe Biden’s victory and most respondents think the presidential transition will be rocky.
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Chicago-Area Clerk Asks Court to Toss Anti-Patronage Rules
The Cook County clerk should not be bound by decades-old federal consent decrees meant to curb hiring and firing decisions based on political affiliations, her attorney argued before a Seventh Circuit panel Tuesday.
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Greece: Extreme-Right Party Leaders Jailed For 13 Years
A Greek court sentenced the leadership of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party to 13 years in prison Wednesday, imposing the near-maximum penalty for running a criminal organization blamed for numerous violent hate crimes.
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Greek Court Rules Golden Dawn Party Criminal Organization
A Greek court ruled on Wednesday that the far-right Golden Dawn party was operating as a criminal organization, delivering landmark guilty verdicts following a politically charged five-year trial against dozens of defendants.
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Delaware Defends Judicial Balance Rule at Supreme Court
Despite 27 years of Democratic governors appointing the state’s judges, Delaware courts have remained balanced thanks to a law requiring judicial seats to be split between the two major political parties, a lawyer for the state argued Monday before the Supreme Court.
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Poland Powerbroker Kaczynski Joins Gov’t as Deputy PM
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the powerful leader of Poland’s dominant right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, will formally join the coalition government it leads, the prime minister said Wednesday.
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Dems, GOP Spar Over Minnesota Limits on Helping People Vote
Attorneys representing the two major political parties faced off in the Minnesota Supreme Court on Thursday in a dispute over two state laws limiting Minnesotans’ ability to help others vote.
Read moreFlorida Elections
The 11th Circuit upheld Florida’s ballot access law, which requires minor parties to have either an affiliation with a national party or a petition signed by 1% of the state population in order to appear on the ballot.
Read moreBallot Order
The Eighth Circuit granted Republicans a stay pending appeal of a federal judge’s order awarding Democrats a preliminary injunction to prevent Minnesota from enforcing a law governing the order in which candidates appear on the ballot.
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Study Finds Shift in Congressional Social Media Landscape
A new Pew Research Center analysis of Facebook posts and tweets from members of Congress since 2015 shows that Democrats post more but Republicans have more audience engagement.
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