On August 4, the U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th circuit denied a rehearing en banc in Coffield v Handel, 09-13277.  The case challenged the procedures for independent and minor party candidates to get on the ballot for U.S. House.  They are so severe, they have not been used since 1964.  Three times, the U.S. Supreme Court has said that ballot access laws that are seldom used are probably unconstitutional.  The original 11th circuit opinion, released on March 22, 2010, had acknowledged this, but said there is no data in the Coffield case as to how many petitions were attempted and failed.

The petition for rehearing had pointed out that there is no way to know this information, and further that the U.S. Supreme Court had not said that data is relevant.  But, that argument apparently did not sway the 11th circuit.  There had been hopes that the failure of all the independent and minor party petitions in Georgia this year, above the level of state house, might have influenced the 11th circuit to grant a rehearing.  Coffield hopes to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.