On January 25, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to even look at the cert petition filed in the Michigan ballot access case, Erard v Johnson, 15M76. The issue is the law that says newly-qualifying parties need twice as many signatures as old parties need votes to stay on. The Clerk of the court erroneously reported to the justices that the case had been filed a day late, and presented the case as one in which Matt Erard was seeking to be excused for being late. Erard, the Socialist Party pro se activist who filed the case, was not actually late, but it is not likely that any Justice, or any clerk for any Justice, read the actual account of why the clerk thought it was late.

In 1968 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Williams v Rhodes that it is unconstitutional for any state to require more support for a new party than for an old party.