On January 15, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton granted injunctive relief to the Arizona Green Party on two issues. The order permits the party to use out-of-state circulators for its petition to get itself on the ballot. Also, the order extends the deadline from February 25 to March 11. The party had not argued that the February 25, 2010 was per se unconstitutional. But the party had argued that it violates due process to change the deadline from March to February and to try to enforce it so soon after enacting the change. The case is Arizona Green Party v Bennett, 2:09-cv-2412.

It was no surprise that the party won injunctive relief against the ban on out-of-state circulators for petitions to qualify a party. The 9th circuit had struck down Arizona’s residency requirement for petitioners in 2008, in a case involving independent presidential petitions. So the 2009 legislative session had repealed the ban, but only for independent presidential petitions. The 2009 legislative session left the ban in place for all other types of petitions, which was not logical.