On July 15, a U.S. District Court in South Dakota heard arguments in Constitution Party of South Dakota v Nelson, cv 10-3011.  The issue is a law that says that certain parties needs 250 signatures of registered party members to place candidates for Governor, U.S. Senator, and U.S. House-at-large on their own primary ballots.  The Constitution Party is ballot-qualified because it submitted 8,389 valid signatures, but it only has about 345 registered members.  It is virtually impossible to get 250 signatures on a petition when the pool of available signers consists of only 345 people, scattered across a state with a large area.

Due to a misunderstanding with the court, the Constitution Party’s attorney had not submitted a comprehensive brief on the law’s constitutionality, so the judge permitted a new round of briefs to be filed in the next few weeks.