The Vermont legislature this year moved the petition deadline for independent candidates from September to June, a drastic de-liberalization.  On August 25, an independent candidate for U.S. House, Jerry Trudell, filed a lawsuit in state court, alleging that the deadline is unconstitutional.  Vermont holds its primary in August.  The case is Trudell v Markowitz, filed in Superior Court in Washington County.

Trudell was on the ballot in 2008 for U.S. House, with the ballot label “Energy Independence.”  He polled 10,818 votes, coming in third.  He submitted a petition this year shortly before the primary, but the Secretary of State refused to accept it because it was late.

Courts in many states have ruled that independent petition candidate deadlines (for office other than president) may not be earlier than the primary, or perhaps the day before the primary.  Such cases have been won in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina.  In addition, lawsuits filed by independent presidential candidates have also struck down deadlines in Arizona, Massachusetts, and North Carolina, and in all three of those cases, the decision seemed to strike down the deadline for non-presidential independents as well.

There are no cases upholding independent candidate petition deadlines that are earlier than primary day, or the day before the primary, except for one in Illinois in 1986 that has since been overturned, and one in Washington state in which none of the plaintiff-candidates were injured by the deadline.