Massachusetts Presidential Stand-in Case Moves Ahead in First Circuit

The U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit, has set a briefing schedule in Barr v Galvin, 09-2426. The brief of Massachusetts state officials is due December 21, 2009. The Libertarian Party’s brief is due January 20, 2010. The issue is whether the Constitution requires Massachusetts to permit unqualified parties to use a stand-in presidential candidate on its ballot access petitions. The lower court had ruled in favor of the Libertarian Party. This is the first time any case on stand-ins on petitions has reached any U.S. Court of Appeals. In the past, states that lost on this issue in federal court (two cases in Florida and one in Virginia) didn’t appeal.

Constitutional election law cases involving minor parties or independent candidates are now pending in six of the twelve U.S. Courts of Appeals. Besides the Massachusetts case pending in the First Circuit mentioned above, they are:

2nd Circuit: the Connecticut case over public funding laws that make it easier for Democratic and Republican candidates to receive funding.

4th Circuit: the South Carolina case that prevents a party from having its nominee on the November ballot if, after the party nominated someone, that person tried and failed to get the nomination of a second party.

5th Circuit: cases in Louisiana and Mississippi over the administration of deadlines for getting presidential candidates on the ballot, and whether only state legislatures can determine such deadlines.

9th Circuit: the Hawaii case over whether a state can require more than six times as many signatures for a single independent candidate as for an entire new party.

11th Circuit: cases in Alabama and Georgia over the number of signatures needed for independent candidates for the U.S. House.


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