On December 17, the Minnesota Supreme Court expedited the lawsuit De La Fuente v Simon, A19-1994. This is Rocky De La Fuente’s challenge to the Minnesota presidential primary ballot access law, which says that no candidate can get on a presidential primary unless that party approves of the person.

The Court ordered the Secretary of State to respond by December 31. If the Republican Party, or perhaps the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, wishes to express anything, they are invited to submit amicus briefs, also by December 31. The oral argument will be January 9, 2020, at 10 a.m.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has an excellent record on ballot access. In 2004 it unanimously invalidated a law that kept qualified parties from having any nominees on the general election ballot unless they had a high turnout in their primary. Also in 2004 it unanimously put a candidate for congress on the primary ballot, even though he was a fugitive living in Italy. But he met the constitutional qualifications to be a member of Congress, so because he had paid his filing fee, he could not be kept off the ballot.