On February 22, the U.S. Supreme Court revealed that it won’t hear Kopitke v Bell, 20-897, the challenge to the North Carolina independent presidential petition deadline of March 3. That deadline, created in 2018, violates the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1983 decision Anderson v Celebrezze, which struck down Ohio’s March 20 deadline.

The result will create disorder if there is a presidential candidate running outside the major parties in future elections who doesn’t begin his or her campaign until the election year itself.

The court’s action continues its 30-year unbroken record of denying all cert petitions filed by minor party and independent candidates on ballot access. It is as though every member of the U.S. Supreme Court has silently concluded that the constitution does not apply to the voting rights of persons who wish to vote for candidates other than Democratic and Republican nominees.