On November 9, Rocky De La Fuente won a procedural point from a U.S. District Court in South Carolina, in his presidential primary ballot access lawsuit. Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, a Clinton appointee, in a two-page order, denied the request of the South Carolina Democratic Party to have the lawsuit dismissed. Now, further proceedings will be required.

The South Carolina Democratic Party had refused to list De La Fuente on its February 27, 2016 presidential primary. The refusal letter from the party, dated December 29, 2015, merely said, “The party’s executive council met on Monday, December 7, 2015, to consider all of the Democratic presidential primary campaign filings. The purpose of this letter is to inform you that the Council did not approve your filing. Enclosed you will find your check for the filing fee.”

De La Fuente sued the Democratic Party, but he didn’t file the lawsuit until February 2, 2016. He asked for an injunction, putting him on the ballot, but that was denied on February 25. The reason for the denial was (1) De La Fuente filed the lawsuit too late; (2) he wasn’t likely to win in any event, because the South Carolina Democratic Party rules were not completely arbitrary; they said only candidates who are discussed in the news media should be put on the primary ballot. The judge said similar rules had been upheld in other states in the 1980’s. But, the case was still alive.

This case may be important if it causes states to re-think their laws that say presidential primary ballot access should be automatically granted to candidates discussed in the news media. Although such laws were mostly upheld in 1980 and 1984, “media” has changed substantially since then. De La Fuente has been arguing in this case that such laws fail to specify which type of news media matter, leaving a candidate without a way to know whether he or she will be chosen.