On December 14, Charlene Mitchell died at the age of 92. She was the Communist Party presidential candidate in 1968. She was the first black woman whose name appeared on a government-printed ballot as a presidential candidate. Also, she was the first third party candidate ever placed on a ballot by a federal court (other than the U.S. Supreme Court). On October 2, 1968, a three-judge U.S. District Court ordered Minnesota to put her on the ballot. She had submitted the necessary 2,000 signatures, but the Secretary of State had kept her off because he believed that Congress has outlawed the Communist Party.
The case was Mitchell v Donovan, 290 F Supp 642. One of the three judges was Harry Blackmun, who was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court the following year. No lower federal court, prior to that decision, had ever ordered a state to put a minor party or independent candidate on the ballot on the grounds that the law was probably unconstitutional.
Mitchell appeared on the ballot in Washington state also. The Secretary of State of Washington did not try to keep her off the ballot. She got 415 votes in Minnesota and 377 in Washington. Two states, California and Ohio, counted write-in votes for her. She got 260 in California and 23 in Ohio.
In 1970, the U.S. Supreme Court heard Minnesota’s appeal. Mitchell v Donovan, 398 U.S. 427. The Court issued a per curiam decision saying the case was not a suitable vehicle to decide whether the Communist Party really was barred by a federal law that had passed years earlier.
But in 1972, the Communist Party ran Gus Hall for president, and sued Indiana over the loyalty oath for parties, and won that case in the U.S. Supreme Court. Communist Party of Indiana v Whitcomb, 1974. Thanks to Derek Muller for the news about Mitchell’s death.
More dead commies! Thank you Jesus! Merry White Christmas y’all!!
And a very happy White new year! Nappy Ho ho ho! š
She was a true trail blazer!! She will be dearly missed!! RIP my Queen!!
The garbage comment on December 24, 2022 at 5:01 pm is from Cody Quirk.
How do you know that was Cody Quirk?
On the other thread he threatened to report people to the FBI, a signature Cody Quirk tactic.
As I said on the other thread, worst āfact checkerā ever!!! Bwahahahaha total moron!!
You sure it isn’t Robert K Stock?
Joe he isnāt sure of a damn thing!! Iām none of the above but he is definitely free to make a fool of himself! Fact checker my ass!!
I agree with Sam and Duke!
It would be nice if something could be done about the racist dumpster fire in this site’s comments sections. Such a glaring gap between the quality of the posts and the rancid comments.
Hey A.J., perhaps what you consider to be “racism” is a logical and accurate understanding of reality.
It most definitely is.
Commies don’t know how to use logic to refute opinions they don’t like, and the facts are not on their side so they just want to run tattle tale and ask for “something to be done” so them and all the other precious little snowflakes don’t have to be exposed to the truth!
Yeah, that, or it’s a waste of everyone’s time to look through the pointless garbage comments to find the few of value.
I agree. But I’m still glad I took a moment to find the valuable and accurate comments by Sam, Duke Head, Disco Stick and Alton.