At the close of normal business hours in Connecticut, on Monday, September 24, the Connecticut Supreme Court still hasn’t issued any order in Republican Party of Connecticut v Merrill, SC 19010. The hearing was on September 12. It is very odd that the Court hasn’t at least issued a brief order, so that the state can start printing ballots. Sometimes Courts release their conclusion and later they explain why. For example, the Arizona Supreme Court issued its conclusion a few weeks ago that the top-two open primary initiative doesn’t violate the single subject rule, but the Arizona court still hasn’t explained its reasoning.

The issue in the Connecticut case is which party should be listed first on the ballot. Connecticut should consider the idea of giving each candidate and/or each party an equal opportunity to be listed first on the ballot, a policy followed by approximately one-third of the states. The order could be determined either by a random drawing, or by a policy of rotation.