On October 10, the Tennessee Green Party, and the Tennessee Constitution Party, filed a new ballot access lawsuit, Green Party of Tennessee v Hargett, 3:13cv-1128, middle district.

The lawsuit has two points. The first is that because the two parties were put on the ballot by a U.S. District Court in 2012, and because the Sixth Circuit refused to stay that action, therefore the parties should also be on the ballot automatically for the 2014 election. The Tennessee law says that when parties meet the vote test, they should remain ballot-qualified for the next four years.

The second point challenges the law requiring newly-qualifying parties to submit an affidavit that they do not advocate the overthrow of the government by force or violence. The affidavit also must say that the parties are not affiliated with any other organization that advocates the overthrow of the government by force or violence. In 1974 the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously invalidated an Indiana law that also required newly-qualifying parties to submit such an affidavit.