On January 30, the U.S. Supreme Court asked the Arizona Secretary of State to respond to the Libertarian Party’s ballot access cert petition by March 2. The Secretary of State has just requested that her deadline be extended to April 1, and the Court has agreed. Arizona Libertarian Party v Hobbs, 19-757. The issue is the petition requirement for members of small qualified parties that have been on the ballot for four years or more to get on their own party’s primary ballot. The law was passed in 2015. Since then, not a single Libertarian for federal or state office has been able to get on the primary ballot, and therefore the party has had no congressional or state office candidates on the general election ballot.

The law does not apply to minor parties that have been on the ballot less than four years, so the Green Party was able to place nominees on the 2016 and 2018 ballots, even though the Green Party has far fewer registered voters in Arizona than the Libertarian Party has. So the law is not only restrictive, but unequal.