On January 9, 2012, Monday, a U.S. District Court will hear oral arguments in Green Party of Tennessee v Hargett, the lawsuit that challenges the new ballot access law passed by the Tennessee legislature this year. In 2010, the same judge who has this case, William J. Haynes, had declared the old law unconstitutional.

In response to the 2010 court decision, the 2011 session of the legislature did not lower the number of signatures (40,042 for 2012, 2.5% of the last gubernatorial vote). It did move the deadline for a party to submit these signatures from late March to early April of the election year. And it removed the wording on the petition that says all the signers are members. The plaintiffs argue that these improvements are much too minor to save the law.