On May 11, the Ninth Circuit heard arguments in Arizona Green Party v Reagan, 14-15976. This Courthouse News Service story describes the hearing.

However, the story does not mention that the Green Party, which missed the deadline in 2014, did nevertheless complete the petition, albeit not until May 2014. The party’s attorney brought the completed petition into the U.S. District Court to demonstrate that the party did complete the petition. Technically, however, this is not considered evidence.

Another point not mentioned in the story is that Arizona’s deadline for an independent presidential candidate is only sixty days before the general election, and that petition this year requires 35,514 signatures. Also, the Arizona Constitution says the petition deadline for statewide initiatives is only four months before the general election, and Arizona statewide initiatives require hundreds of thousands of signatures. Yet the state seems able to cope. Logically, one wonders why the state needs the new party petition six months before the primary.