On February 3, a Vermont Superior Court Judge held oral arguments in Trudell v Markowitz, 612-8-10-wn-cv. This is the lawsuit filed last year, challenging the constitutionality of the June petition deadline for independent candidates. The 2010 legislature moved that deadline from September to June. The 2010 legislature also moved the primary from September to August. If the legislature had simply moved the petition deadline from September to August, it is not likely anyone would have sued. But setting the independent candidate petition deadline months before the primary is unconstitutional, according to precedents from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina.

The judge denied the state’s attempt to dismiss the case, and said he would make a decision on the constitutionality of the law in the next few months.