On July 14, U.S. District Court Judge Edmund Sargus held a hearing in Ohio Libertarian Party v Brunner. The issue is whether the Ohio Libertarian Party is qualified or not. The old law on how a party becomes qualified was struck down in 2006, and the legislature has never replaced it. To fill the gap, the Secretary of State created a new procedure, with a deadline three weeks later than the old unconstitutional deadline (November of the year before the election), and with the number of signatures cut in half (from 40,228 signatures to 20,114 signatures). The Ohio Libertarian Party had turned in 6,500 signatures on the day before the March 2008 primary instead. No other group even tried to qualify as a party this year in Ohio.

The hearing lasted 90 minutes. The judge was very well-informed about the details of the case, and seemed very interested in it. He indicated he will have a ruling in the next 10 days. Approximately 20 people were in the courtroom audience. It always helps a ballot access case when the judge sees that the supporters of whatever party or candidate is trying to get on the ballot cared enough to attend the oral argument.