Arkansas Appeals Libertarian Party Ballot Access Case to Eighth Circuit

On September 29, Arkansas filed a notice of appeal with the Eighth Circuit in Libertarian Party of Arkansas v Martin, 16-3794. The U.S. District Court had struck down a 2015 law that says newly-qualifying parties must nominate all their candidates (except president) an entire year before the election.

It takes chutzpah for Arkansas to continue to defend this law. In 1977, a U.S. District Court in Arkansas had struck down the April petition deadline for new parties to get on the ballot. The state did not appeal that decision and the legislature moved the deadline to May. But in 1987 the state forgot why it had done that, and moved the deadline to an even earlier month, January of an election year. That was struck down by a U.S. District Court in 1996, in a case filed by the Reform Party. The legislature had then moved the deadline back to May.

But, again, the legislature forgot why it had done that, and in 2015 moved the deadline to an incredibly early September of the year before the election. The 2015 deadline for a new party petition has not been challenged. But because it is obvious that it would be unconstitutional if challenged, the state does not have “clean hands” (a legal term) in the entire area of treatment of newly qualifying parties. The state has shown bad faith by ignoring previous rulings concerning deadlines. The case is Libertarian Party of Arkansas v Martin.


Comments

Arkansas Appeals Libertarian Party Ballot Access Case to Eighth Circuit — 7 Comments

  1. Just because the state files an appeal, doesn’t change anything at all. The state would need to win the appeal for it to have any effect. This appeal is not being expedited and may not be decided for a year.

  2. How many Libertarian are running in Arkansas .How many elected officials are there in Arkansas.I can only think of one .A constable who lives in Gentry Arkansas .

  3. The number of US House candidates for each party in each state is in the October 1, 2016 Ballot Access News (print edition). The November 1 2016 issue will have the number of state legislative candidates for each party in each state. A sub is only $16 per year (for 12 issues).

  4. There’s a Libertarian running for US Senate in Arkansas. He debated the Democratic candidate because the Republican candidate refused to show against the Libertarian.

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