On June 3, the People’s Party of Florida filed a federal lawsuit against the Florida law that won’t let a party nominate someone who hasn’t been a member for a year before filing. The People’s Party became ballot-qualified in Florida less than a year ago, so the law prohibits the party from having any candidates whatsoever in its first year on the ballot. No one was able to be registered in the People’s Party before it became ballot-qualified.

The candidate-plaintiff wishes to be the People’s Party nominee for Pasco County Board of County Commissioners. People’s Party of Florida v Florida Department of State, m.d., 8:22cv-1274.

The only two other states that ever blocked a new party from running any candidates in its first year of qualified existence were Nevada and Oklahoma, but the laws of both those states, as applied to new parties, were struck down long ago. The Independent American Party of Nevada won its case in the State Supreme Court in 1975, and the Libertarian Party of Oklahoma won its case in U.S. District Court in 1980. Here is the People’s Party complaint. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Thomas P. Barber.