On June 21, the Moderate Party, a ballot-qualified party in Rhode Island, filed a federal lawsuit called Moderate Party of Rhode Island v Lynch.  Here is the complaint.  The number has not been assigned yet.

The case challenges the discriminatory aspect of the law that determines which qualified parties may receive money from the fund that gets its money from a voluntary question on state income tax forms.   Only parties that polled 5% of the gubernatorial vote in the last midterm election may be listed.  There are two other methods by which a party may be a ballot-qualified party, either submitting a petition of 5% of the last gubernatorial vote, or having polled 5% for President at the last presidential election.  When the definition of “political party” was expanded in 1994, the legislature didn’t think to expand the definition in the part of the Rhode Island code that affects the state income tax listing.