On June 25, the Independent Party, and the Party for Socialism & Liberation, filed this opening brief in the Eleventh Circuit, in their Florida ballot access case. They are trying to get their presidential nominees on the Florida ballot. They are both ballot-qualified, but because the Federal Election Commission doesn’t recognize them as national committees, they can’t be on for president unless they submit 132,781 signatures by July 15.

The U.S. District Court seemed to feel the FEC provision discriminates, but also seemed to feel the 132,781 signature requirement is constitutional, even though the Eleventh Circuit already struck down Georgia’s presidential petition, which required 51,845 signatures in 2012, the year the Georgia case was filed. The U.S. District Court said the difference is that Florida allows four years to get the signatures, whereas Georgia only required six months. That is not a very meaningful difference. Many courts have determined that it is difficult to petition far in advance of an election; neither potential signers, nor potential circulators, are as interested that far in the future. UPDATE: on June 25 the Eleventh Circuit expedited the case.