Andy Shugart, who wanted to be on the ballot as an independent candidate for U.S. House in Alabama in 2008, has just filed this cert petition with the U.S. Supreme Court. The case is Shugart v Chapman, number not yet assigned.
He challenges the number of signatures required for an independent candidate for U.S. House, which, in his district, is greater than the number of signatures an independent presidential candidate needs. Alabama has six U.S. House districts, so the state requires more signatures for an office that covers one-sixth of the state than it requires for an office in the entire state.
To have an independent candidate for the US House of Representatives get more petitions that an independent presidential candidate for the entire state is simply unacceptable. At most, the number should be the same to the number of petitions required by an independent presidential candidate, divided by the number of Congressional Districts on that state.
For example, if a state has 10 Congressional Districts and an Independent presidential candidate would have to submit 5,000 signatures for the entire state, an independent candidate for the US House of Representatives would have to submit 500 in any of the state’s Congressional Districts (because each district within the state should have about the same number of inhabitants).