The Third Circuit will hear Constitution Party of Pennsylvania v Cortes on Wednesday, April 13, in Philadelphia. The U.S. District Court in this case had invalidated Pennsylvania’s system of putting petitioning groups at risk of paying as much as $110,000 in court costs if they file a petition which is found to be invalid. Pennsylvania then appealed that decision. It would be valuable for minor party activists to attend this court hearing. The location is the federal courthouse in Philadelphia at 6th and Market Streets. The courtroom is on the 19th floor. The hearing is at 9 a.m.

The judges will be Thomas Ambro, a Clinton appointee; Cheryl Ann Krause, an Obama appointee; and D. Brooks Smith, a Bush Jr. appointee. Judge Smith seemed sympathetic to minor parties in another ballot access case in Pennsylvania in 2006, Rogers v Cortes, 460 F 3d 455. That case upheld the number of signatures needed for minor parties to get on the statewide ballot in 2006, and the vote as 3-0. But at least Judge Smith added, in footnote 8, that it was possible that Pennsylvania’s law requiring a party to have 15% of the registration in order to be on the ballot automatically might be unconstitutional. But, as he said, in the Rogers case the parties weren’t challenging that law. The footnote is somewhat unusual because Judge Smith didn’t write the opinion; the judge who did write the opinion said in footnote 8 that Judge Smith wanted that point to be made.