On May 26, U.S. District Court Judge Robert L. Vining upheld Georgia’s ballot access law for independent candidates for U.S. House. Coffield v Handel, 1:08-cv-2755. The 3-page decision is here. It says that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the same law in 1971 in Jenness v Fortson.

The decision does not mention the fact that the law is so strict, no independent candidate for U.S. House has completed the 5% petition since 1964, and back then, all congressional districts fit within county boundaries, so it was much easier to get high validity rates for district petitions (signers generally know what county they live in, but not which congressional district they live in). The decision does not mention any other U.S. Supreme Court decision.

The decision does not acknowledge that the reason the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Georgia law in 1971 was that statewide 5% petitions had succeeded in Georgia in both 1966 and 1968. The decision does not mention three later U.S. Supreme Court decisions that say lower courts should invalidate ballot access requirements if the record shows that virtually no one ever meets those requirements. Faye Coffield will appeal to the 11th circuit.