On May 19, 2009, a very significant case was argued in the 2nd circuit, over the right to circulate a petition.  Almost 19 months have passed, and still there is no opinion.  The case is Maslow v Board of Elections in the City of New York, 08-3075-cv.  The issue is a New York state law that makes it illegal for anyone to circulate a petition to get someone on a primary ballot, unless the circulator is a registered member of the same party.

Primary ballot access in New York state is more difficult than it is in most states.  Virtually everyone who runs for office in a partisan primary in that state must submit a hefty number of petition signatures.  The significant exceptions are presidential candidates in the Republican primary, and candidates for other statewide office who have substantial support at party endorsement conventions.

The requirement that the circulator must be in the same party as the candidate is especially serious, because of another New York law that makes it impossible for people to switch their membership from one party to another, and have that change take effect immediately.  Instead they must wait approximately nine months to have the switch take effect.

The state defends the law by saying that parties have a right to exclude outsiders from their nomination process.  But the plaintiffs argue that it is the primary voters who choose the party nominees, and the party interest in letting only members determine their nominees is thereby satisfied.  The plaintiffs argue that no principle justifies preventing non-members of a party from helping a party member with his or her campaign in advance of the actual party decision.  Plaintiffs say, if this restriction can stand, that would also justify forbidding candidates in a primary from letting non-members donate, or distribute leaflets, or serve as campaign treasurers or as attorneys or consultants to a campaign.  Here is the brief of the people who brought the lawsuit.  One of the plaintiffs wanted to circulate petitions for her sister, but the law forbade it.