Back in 2004, Ralph Nader sued Hawaii over its ballot access laws. One part of the suit challenged the arbitrary manner in which Hawaii elections officials validate signatures, but the other part of the case challenged the constitutionality of requiring an independent presidential candidate to get almost five times as many signatures as an entire new political party. The case has been stalled for three years. Recently it was assigned to a new federal judge, Judge J. Michael Seabright. He arranged a conference on the case on October 19, so it is likely to move ahead soon. The case is called Nader v Yoshima, 04-611.