On June 7, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear two ballot access cases, one from Alabama and one from Louisiana. The Alabama case, Shugart v Chapman, 09-1221, challenged the number of signatures needed to put an independent candidate for U.S. House on the ballot, given that the state required more signatures for him than for an independent presidential candidate.

The Louisiana case involved whether Bob Barr should have been on the ballot in Louisiana. The Governor of Louisiana had set a later deadline, which Barr met, but the Secretary of State had set an earlier deadline than the Governor’s deadline, which Barr did not meet. The changes in deadlines were because of hurricanes. That case was called Libertarian Party v Dardenne, 09-1223.

The U.S. Supreme Court also refused to hear Rodearmel v Clinton, 09-797, which is not an election law case. It concerned whether Article I of the U.S. Constitution was violated when Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State. Article I, section 6, says no member of Congress is eligible to an appointed position if that person had been in Congress when the salary of that position had been raised. Congress had raised the salary of Secretary of State while Clinton had been a U.S. Senator. But when Clinton was appointed, Congress had lowered the salary back to what it had been before that raise.