Ballot Access News has just noticed that one more interesting case over the qualifications of presidential candidates is now reported. The U.S. District Court for Northern California recently reported Robinson v Bowen, at 567 F Supp 2d 1144, which was a challenge to the qualifications of Senator John McCain to be president.
When a case is “reported”, that means it it put in the printed law books, and anyone can easily read it and cite it. When a case is not “reported”, it is not always easily found, and unreported cases are far less useful as precedents. Robinson v Bowen is very interesting because it says that states have no authority to keep presidential candidates off the ballot just because they do not meet the constitutional qualifications. Back in 1972, when the Socialist Workers Party sued to force the Ohio Secretary of State to place Linda Jenness on the ballot, a U.S. District Court upheld the action of the Secretary of State in keeping her off (since she wasn’t yet 35 years old), but unfortunately that case, Jenness v Brown, isn’t reported.
567 F.Supp.2d 1144 (not 114)
Thank you.
It’s about time that the States re-assert their power over the LIMITED federal government.
Richard:
I certainly HOPE you are not suggesting that “open” ballot access requires candidates who are LEGALLY UNQUALIFIED to be placed on the ballot anyway …
You seem to be saying that the case reporting system in the U.S. is hit or miss. For many decades all federal courts and virtually all state courts have contracted with private reporters (publishers) or have employed their own in house reporters. Of course, there is a time lag between the announcement & release of the decision and the editing, printing & binding of the reports. During this initial period of about one to three months,anybody can order the unbound “slip” decision for a modest fee. Finally, if this was one of the rare cases before a panel of three district court judges the report may be harder to find. This is not to be confused with the standard 3 judge appellate court panels.
Jenness v Brown wasn’t given a 3-judge panel, even though it was filed before July 1, 1976. It was decided by a single US District Court Judge, Joseph Kinneary. It was case no. civil 72-204 in the southern district of Ohio, decision of Sep. 27, 1972. It is only 4 pages long.