The Eighth Circuit will hear Libertarian Party of Arkansas v Martin, 16-3794, on Wednesday, September 20. On September 12, the panel of judges assigned to the case sent a letter to both sides, asking them to be prepared to discuss whether the case is moot or not. That is because, after the Libertarian Party won the case in U.S. District Court, the legislature amended the law to substantially fix the problem that the Libertarians had complained about.
The issue in the original case was whether it is constitutional to force newly-qualifying parties to choose all their non-presidential nominees (in a convention) months before the major parties hold their primaries. After the state lost the case in U.S. District Court, the legislature liberalized the convention deadline, by moving it to primary day.
Even though the legislature removed the problem that had caused the lawsuit, the state continues to appeal the decision. No other state in the history of constitutional ballot access litigation had ever continued to appeal a lower court decision, after the legislature amended the law in the direction desired by the plaintiffs. Thus there is no precedent on ballot access mootness for this type of situation.
ALL cases — the act or omission was or was not illegal at the time the case was filed — 2 x 2 = 4 possibilities (including $$$ damages).
Pure proportional representation is the only election system worth discussing and it’s supported by all parties and independents.
The Libertarian Party is not interested in pure proportional representation. They are only interested in fighting over any minute issue for the sake of a fight because that is how pluralists operate.
Are you interested in pure proportional representation?
The 10th USA Parliament has been using pure proportional representation correctly for more than twenty-two consecutive years and it works fine.
http://www.usparliament.org
Nobody has it as good as the United Coalition.
Um, proportional representation is in the Libertarian party’s platform. I was a delegate the convention that adopted it. I wrote an argument for it in the Party’s newspaper.
https://www.lp.org/platform/
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3.6 Representative Government
We support election systems that are more representative of the electorate at the federal, state and local levels. As private voluntary groups, political parties should be free to establish their own rules for nomination procedures, primaries and conventions. We call for an end to any tax-financed subsidies to candidates or parties and the repeal of all laws which restrict voluntary financing of election campaigns. We oppose laws that effectively exclude alternative candidates and parties, deny ballot access, gerrymander districts, or deny the voters their right to consider all legitimate alternatives. We advocate initiative, referendum, recall and repeal when used as popular checks on government.