On December 23, the Alabama ballot access case called Shugart v Chapman was removed from the U.S. District Court in Birmingham, to the U.S. District Court in Montgomery, at the state’s request. The suit challenges the number of signatures needed for an independent candidate for U.S. House. The lawsuit points out that in the district at issue, the law requires over 6,100 valid signatures, whereas the state only requires 5,000 signatures for an independent presidential candidate. The case is now assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Wallace Capel.

In 1979 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states cannot require more signatures for an office in just part of the state, than for a statewide office. The Alabama case had been filed in Birmingham because the district is near Birmingham, but the state argued that the case should have been filed in Montgomery because the Secretary of State’s office is there.