On May 30, U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson, a Carter appointee, upheld Alabama’s June 6 petition deadline for minor parties and non-presidential independents. Swanson v Worley, 2:02cv644-T.

The decision is only 7 pages long, and doesn’t even mention the two U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the issue of petition deadlines, Mandel v Bradley, and Anderson v Celebrezze. Mandel v Bradley, issued in 1977 by the U.S. Supreme Court, said that early petition deadlines are unconstitutional if the record shows that very few minor parties or independents ever qualify. Thompson ignored the record, which showed that few such candidates have qualified in Alabama ever since the deadline was moved from mid-July to early June, in 2002.

Plaintiffs can now appeal this case, which was filed in 2002, to the 11th circuit.