Seventh Circuit Upholds Indiana Requirement for Statewide Independent Petitions

Posted on by August 19, 2024

On August 17, the Seventh Circuit upheld Indiana’s petition requirement for statewide independent candidates and the nominees of unqualified parties.  Indiana Green Party v Morales, 23-2756.  The state required 44,935 signatures when the lawsuit was filed in 2022, and at the time Indiana had the nation’s highest percentage for presidential candidates running outside the major parties.  No one had used the petition since 2000.

However, due to low voter turnout in November 2022, the requirement (2% of the vote for Secretary of State) dropped to 36,944 signatures for the 2024 election. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. successfully met the requirement.  The Seventh Circuit therefore seemed to feel the requirement is not severe enough to be unconstitutional

Here is the decision.  It is by Judge Kenneth Ripple, a Reagan appointee.  It is also signed by Judge David Hamilton (Clinton) and Judge Michael Brennan (Trump).

Indiana is one of only four states in which the Green Party presidential nominee has never been on the ballot.  The others are Georgia, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.  This year the Green Party expects to be on the Georgia ballot.

Comments

Seventh Circuit Upholds Indiana Requirement for Statewide Independent Petitions — 56 Comments

  1. ONE MORE FAILURE BY THE UUSUAL SUSPECTS TO NOTE IN A BRIEF —

    BROWN V BD OF ED 1954 — SEPARATE IS NOT EQUAL

    INDIVIDUALS ARE NOMINATED/ELECTED — NOT *PARTIES*.

  4. AZ: The Soviet Union had a maximum income tax rate of 60% for office workers. Factory workers had a maximum tax rate of 13%. If you were childless then you paid a little extra in taxesThe idea that Communism takes 100% of income is false.

    There are 3 stages of Communism. 1: Socialism, where the workers have become the new ruling class. 2: First stage Communism where the State and Classes are beginning to wither away. 3: Higher Communism where there is finally no State, no Class, and no Money. It is in the 3rd stage of Higher Communism where we see to each according to their needs and from each according to their abilities. It is a process of decades if not centuries to achieve.

    No country on Earth has ever reached that first stage of Socialism. But there has been a good start. We can learn what went wrong in the Soviet Union and avoid it’s mistakes. While at the same time we can use what worked to create a Communist future for the United States and the World.

    Engels wrote in his 1890 book “Socialism Utopian and Scientific” that once a Socialist Society is created there will still be struggle. And that each Socialist Society will have different paths to the goal of Communism depending on the unique circumstances of each country.

    You will ask about the millions murdered by Stalin. So what!!! We are not recreating the Soviet Union. We have the benefit of George Orwell’s Animal Farm to help us see how a Revolution is betrayed by a Cult of Personality and setting up an Entrenched Bureaucracy. Millions murdered by Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot are among the mistakes we will avoid. And that includes North Korea which has betrayed it’s Revolution by devolving into a Hereditary Monarchy instead of being a true People’s Republic.

  5. Stock really is a fucking moron with his FAKE NEWS and trolling bullshit.

    I expect his trolling personas Taran or one of the others to all of a sudden appear and defend him.

  6. There are no such things as “qualified candidates” to be on a ballot. There are qualified voters entitled to use the ballot. The voters have the right to decide the qualifications of the persons for whom they vote. No one has the right to deny their freedom of choice.
    There are constitutional qualifications for who may hold office IF elected, but that does authorize censorship of voters and their ballots with extraneous, fake qualifications for candidates.
    An example of illegitimate candidate qualifications is the “modicum of support” censorship rule. Ballots cast by legitimate voters reveal what modicum of support a candidate has in fact. It cannot be determined in advance of a campaign prior to the election or by any opinion polling months before a campaign and before ballots are in the hands of voters.
    Modicum of support censorship is fascist censorship.
    There is no mathematical definition of a “modicum” without an objective unit of measurement, that is, a ballot cast by a qualified voter.
    Democrats and Republicans are calling each other liars – and they’re both right. They still collude to censor ballots to compel voters to choose the most clever liars. Elections have become institutional deceptions.

  7. CORRECTION for TYPO: There are no such things as “qualified candidates” to be on a ballot. There are qualified voters entitled to use the ballot. The voters have the right to decide the qualifications of the persons for whom they vote. No one has the right to deny their freedom of choice.
    There are constitutional qualifications for who may hold office IF elected, but that does NOT authorize censorship of voters and their ballots with extraneous, fake qualifications for candidates.
    An example of illegitimate candidate qualifications is the “modicum of support” censorship rule. Ballots cast by legitimate voters reveal what modicum of support a candidate has in fact. It cannot be determined in advance of a campaign prior to the election or by any opinion polling months before a campaign and before ballots are in the hands of voters.
    Modicum of support censorship is fascist censorship.
    There is no mathematical definition of a “modicum” without an objective unit of measurement, that is, a ballot cast by a qualified voter.
    Democrats and Republicans are calling each other liars – and they’re both right. They still collude to censor ballots to compel voters to choose the most clever liars. Elections have become institutional deceptions.

  9. I am the real McCoy. You can tell the impersonater by his support for Trump. That is something that I would never do.

  10. NEW AGE COMMUNISM/FASCISM IN THE USA –

    1.. LOOT THE PRODUCTIVE TO THE MAX TO HAVE THE NON-PRODUCTIVE CONSUME THE MAX.

    2. ALSO GOVTS BORROW TO THE MAX AND GOVTS INFLATE TO THE MAX ON TOP OF

    3. GOVTS TAX TO THE MAX.
    ——-
    4. EXTREMIST PLURALITY NOMINATIONS TO THE MAX
    5. EXTREMIST PLURALITY ELECTIONS TO THE MAX
    6. MINORITY RULE GERRYMANDERS TO THE MAX

    IE LOOTERS NOMINATED AND ELECTED TO THE MAX IN 4-6 TO DO 1-3 ABOVE TO THE MAX.
    —–

    PR
    APPV
    TOTSOP

  11. I thought Stock was a libertarian, meaning he would support Trump. This Stock has to be the impersonator.

  12. DFR — MODICUM IN SCOTUS

    https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/479/189/

    Munro v. Socialist Workers, 479 U.S. 189 (1986)

    U.S. Supreme Court
    Munro v. Socialist Workers, 479 U.S. 189 (1986)
    Munro, Secretary of State of Washington v.
    Socialist Workers Party
    No. 85-656
    Argued October 7, 1986
    Decided December 10, 1986
    479 U.S. 189
    APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR
    THE NINTH CIRCUIT
    Syllabus
    A Washington statute (§ 29.18.110) requires that a minor party candidate for office receive at least 1% of all votes cast for that office in the State’s primary election before the candidate’s name will be placed on the general election ballot. Appellee Peoples qualified to be placed on the primary election ballot as the nominee of appellee Socialist Workers Party (Party) for United States Senator. At the primary, he received less than 1% of the total votes cast for the office, and, accordingly, his name was not placed on the general election ballot. Peoples, the Party, and appellee registered voters then brought an action in Federal District Court, alleging that § 29.18.110 violated their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The District Court denied relief, but the Court of Appeals reversed, holding that § 29.18.110, as applied to candidates for statewide offices, was unconstitutional.
    Held: Section 29.18.110 is constitutional. Pp. 479 U. S. 193-199.
    (a) States have a right to require candidates to make a preliminary showing of substantial support in order to qualify for a place on the ballot. Jenness v. Fortson, 403 U. S. 431; American Party of Texas v. White,415 U. S. 767. Pp. 479 U. S. 193-194.
    (b) The fact that Washington’s political history evidences no voter confusion from ballot overcrowding does not require invalidation of § 29.18.110. A State is not required to prove actual voter confusion, ballot overcrowding, or the presence of frivolous candidates as a predicate to imposing reasonable ballot access restrictions. In any event, the record in this case discloses that enactment of § 29.18.110 was, in fact, linked to the legislature’s perception that the general election ballot was becoming cluttered with minor party candidates who did not command significant voter support, and the State was clearly entitled to raise the ante for ballot access, to simplify the general election ballot, and to avoid the possibility of unrestrained factionalism at the general election. Pp. 479 U. S. 194-196.
    (c) The burdens imposed on appellees’ First Amendment rights by § 29.18.110 are not too severe to be justified by the State’s interest in restricting access to the general ballot. Pp. 479 U. S. 196-197.
    Page 479 U. S. 190
    (d) The differences between requiring primary votes to qualify for a position on the general election ballot and requiring signatures on nominating petitions are not of constitutional dimension. Pp. 479 U. S. 197-198.
    (e) There is no merit to appellees’ argument that, since voter turnout at primary elections is generally lower than the turnout at general elections, § 29.18.110 has reduced the pool of potential supporters from which appellee Party candidates can secure 1% of the vote. The statute creates no impediment to voting at primary elections, and does no more than require a candidate to show a “significant modicum” of voter support in primary elections. P. 479 U. S. 198.
    (f) Section 29.18.110 serves to promote the very First Amendment values that are threatened by overly burdensome ballot access restrictions. Washington’s voters are not denied freedom of association because they must channel their expressive activity into a campaign at the primary as opposed to the general election. Pp. 479 U. S. 198-199.
    765 F.2d 1417, reversed.
    WHITE, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which REHNQUIST, C. J., and BLACKMUN, POWELL, STEVENS, O’CONNOR, and SCALIA, JJ., joined. MARSHALL, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which BRENNAN, J., joined, post, p. 479 U. S. 200.
    —
    LARGER *MODICUM* FOR 3RDS/INDEES SAYETH THE COMMIE/FASCIST HACKS ON SCOTUS —

    APPOINTED BY COMMIE/FASCIST USA PREZS AND CONFIRMED BY COMMIE/FASCIST USA SENATORS
    —–
    PR
    NONPARTISAN APPV — ESP FOR SCOTUS
    TOTSOP

  13. Is the AZ bot saying there are opportunities for tots in Apartment 5 in Puerto Rico? I can’t understand it.

  14. AZ:Ideally the workers should decide among themselves how businesses are operated and how the profits are divided. The owners or shareholders should have just one vote among the workers. This is Democracy in the Workplace.

    Since we are saddled with this Capitalist system any redistribution of wealth through taxation is a pale anemic attempt at what should be. It’s not looting. The owners and shareholders are committing theft from the workers.

  15. Ken: Where have you been? I quit the Libertarian Party in 2019. I became a Communist in 2021.

  16. I also believe this Stock is the impostor. The real Stock is struggling financially and supporting Trump because his economy was better.

  19. HOW MANY *MISTAKES* / *BETRAYALS* / ETC. CAUSING THE ROT IN THE OLDE 1917-1991 RUSSIA/USSR REGIME AND ITS FINAL COLLAPSE IN 1979-1991 ???

    EXCUSES / EXCUSES — FROM DAY 1 OF THE LENIN MURDER REGIME IN 1917 — STARTING WITH MURDER OF ABOUT 50,000 RANDOM FOLKS TO TERRORIZE THE POPULATION.

    V LENIN
    STALIN
    V PUTIN
    666

  20. Facts: I have been debt free for over 20 years with the exception of student loans which I paid off three years early. Trump was a disaster for the economy. The only people who benefited were his billionaire cronies who increased their wealth by more and more tax breaks. Added to this was an increase in corporate welfare at the expense of the workers.

  22. AZ: Lenin did not kill random folks. That is absolute bullshit. The only terrorism was caused by the Whites who wanted to bring back the Czar and exploit the workers and peasants.

    Stalin created a Cult of Personality and Entrenched Bureaucracy that was THE betrayal of the Revolution. His paranoia and murderous ways were not just a mistake, but a horrible tragedy.

    Putin is not a Communist. He had been an agent of the KGB but Putin and Yelsin stopped being Communists and became Capitalists in 1990 when they decided to embrace private property and overthrow Gorbachev and instituted a government of oligarchs.

    666 is a number from the Book of Revelation that is meaningless because there is no God and the Bible is just a book of fairy-tales. Many people who do believe in the Bible say that the number 666 is referring to the Roman Emperor, either Nero or Dometian

  24. Just to clarify: that is not me. I support Trump and hate communism. This Stock guy is delusional.

  26. Stock is a communist who supports RFK Jr. The troll impersonator/stock obsessed troll is a white nationalist alt right fascist who supports Trump and can’t stand any opposing views being expressed.

    It should not matter who I am to point that out, but the troll will say I’m Stock. So here’s something about me.

    I’m a right wing libertarian who doesn’t vote because 1)Votes are not honestly counted 2)If they were honestly counted, the chances that my vote would change the outcome of any race are extremely low, so why bother? 3)If it did change the outcomes of races, the candidates running are all dishonest, incompetent, have no chance of winning, or, usually, more than one of those, 4)The machinery of government is way too complex for anyone to fix or unwind, and is designed to be that way; 5)It’s not even clear what changes wouldn’t backfire even if someone had the power to implement them, which 6)is unlikely and 7)voting only legitimizes an illegitimate system.

    Some people say if you don’t vote you can’t complain. I disagree. Voting and complaining are two separate overlapping rights that are mutually independent of each other and both pretty much useless at fixing anything. Cynicism is a valid viewpoint, and one I legitimately hold. I don’t have solutions that will fix the political mess. Neither do any of you. If I did, they would not be implemented. Yours won’t either. Way too many people are allowed to vote, political government units are way too big, and the laws are way too complex. No one here or not here will change that.

    The idiotic child troll will say I’m Stock anyway.

  27. Donald Trump I as the second coming of Jesus. Let everyone know the good news, He is back! Put your trust in Him, and no one else! He alone will fix all our problems! Yes, I’m completely serious, like all the rest of you retards.

    Liquidate everything you own and donate it all to Trump! Travel around to Trump speeches! Go to work for free for the Trump campaign in between speeches! Devote your life to Trump, and you will be rewarded in the new Kingdom of Heaven which Trump will rule via Truth Social from a toilet throne of pure 24k gold! Trump is the way, the truth and the life!

  28. I as = typo. I meant to say is. I did not mean to reveal my identity.

  30. “The Soviet Union had a maximum income tax rate of 60% for office workers. Factory workers had a maximum tax rate of 13%. If you were childless then you paid a little extra in taxesThe idea that Communism takes 100% of income is false.”

    That was a shell game. All office, factory, and any other type of worker worked for government owned enterprises. If they didn’t spend whatever they made on the black market, they spent it on goods and services provided by other government owned enterprises. That’s a form of taxation. People didn’t make enough to effectively save much if anything, but if anyone did anyway, they could not legally invest it.

    To the extent that the tax rate was not 100%, it’s only because a black market existed. That black market was also why the Soviet Union lasted even as long as it did, because the government owned enterprises delivered an inadequate amount of shoddy goods and terrible services. Everything functioned poorly when it functioned at all, which people managed to notice despite the state’s attempts at total information control.

  31. “There are 3 stages of Communism. 1: Socialism, where the workers have become the new ruling class. 2: First stage Communism where the State and Classes are beginning to wither away. 3: Higher Communism where there is finally no State, no Class, and no Money. It is in the 3rd stage of Higher Communism where we see to each according to their needs and from each according to their abilities. It is a process of decades if not centuries to achieve.

    No country on Earth has ever reached that first stage of Socialism. But there has been a good start. We can learn what went wrong in the Soviet Union and avoid it’s mistakes. While at the same time we can use what worked to create a Communist future for the United States and the World.”

    If something failed everywhere it’s ever been tried, what is the basis for believing it will ever work anywhere ever? A more logic conclusion would be that the underlying theory is erroneous.

  32. “Engels wrote in his 1890 book “Socialism Utopian and Scientific” that once a Socialist Society is created there will still be struggle. And that each Socialist Society will have different paths to the goal of Communism depending on the unique circumstances of each country.”

    In reality, the struggle consists of blaming everything that goes wrong on external enemies, counterrevolutionary saboteurs, and people not working hard enough in the absence of logically obvious incentives to do so.

    “You will ask about the millions murdered by Stalin. So what!!! We are not recreating the Soviet Union. We have the benefit of George Orwell’s Animal Farm to help us see how a Revolution is betrayed by a Cult of Personality and setting up an Entrenched Bureaucracy. Millions murdered by Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot are among the mistakes we will avoid.”

    Why should we believe you that you will avoid the “mistakes” made by every allegedly Marxist government that has ever existed?

  33. “Is the AZ bot saying there are opportunities for tots in Apartment 5 in Puerto Rico? I can’t understand it.”

    We’ve had some great times with tots and brown acid in Apartment 5. Even better than Epstein’s island, and I’ve been to both plenty of times! Younger kids, Brown acid, need I say more ???

  34. “Ken: Where have you been? I quit the Libertarian Party in 2019. I became a Communist in 2021.”

    He’s been right here, trolling and impersonating you, shilling for Trump and alt right bigotry, trying to shout down every leftist and moderate as well as anyone who points out these facts regardless of viewpoint. I disagree with you strongly on most anything political, but I disagree with those wannabe bully tactics even more.

    Your erroneous opinions don’t need to be shouted down. They can be engaged honestly and in good faith. Truth has no need of underhanded, childish tactics.

    I’d vote for Trump as the lesser evil if I bothered to vote, but I have no illusions about him being great, making America great, or any other such nonsense.

    There’s no government solution to our problems. Government is a problem, not a solution. I don’t know that anarchy would work either, but that’s not important, since nobody is about to give it a chance.

    If any solutions exist, they’re in convincing growing numbers of people to avoid and find ways around government paperwork, surveillance, interference in business and personal lives, extraction of revenue in various nosy ways, etc. And in refusing to acknowledge its legitimacy through sham voting rituals or permitted protests, lobbying government, or anything else that acknowledges their authority.

  35. Trump is the answer. Impersonating Stock is not. Stock trolling people is not either.

  36. Trump is a false hope, and at best a lesser evil. Impersonating Stock and trolling Stock and pretending that anyone who points out you’re impersonating and trolling Stock is Stock is retarded.

  39. You’re not confused. You know full well you’re the one trolling Stock, impersonating Stock, and falsely claiming I’m Stock only because I call it out.

  43. It seems to matter less and less which President appointed particular judges when it comes to ballot access issues.

  46. “Trump was a disaster for the economy. The only people who benefited were his billionaire cronies who increased their wealth by more and more tax breaks. Added to this was an increase in corporate welfare at the expense of workers.”

    This is false. The economy was great under Trump before covid. Poor and working class people were better off because there were jobs for pretty much anyone who wanted one, no shortages of anything in stores, no inflation to speak of, things were affordable, and more people were able to afford to buy their own homes and otherwise do things to help themselves and their families out in the long term.

    Trump fell way too much for scamdemic propaganda which screwed up that economy, but Democrat governors and other politicians fell for it even more, so he was at least relatively better there too.

    Biden-Harris has been the real economic disaster, especially for the poor and “working class.” Prices are going up faster than wages, housing and food and fuel and everything is unaffordable, and people have to get second and third jobs just to pay the bills, not even get ahead. They’re bringing in millions of illegals from every country, criminal organization, terrorist group, prison and mental asylum in the world. It’s been a total disaster.

  49. @AZ,

    The purpose of amici briefs is to present viewpoints that the two parties may not have made. Who better to bring up Brown than someone who believes it is applicable?

  51. JR-

    HOW MANY ELECTION LAW LAWYERS ON BAN ???

    ONE SENTENCE BRIEF –

    THIS COURT HAS FAILED TO NOTE BROWN V BD OF ED (1954) IN ALL OF ITS BALLOT ACCESS CASES SINCE WILLIAMS V RHODES (1968).

  52. @AZ,

    Explain why the 7th Circuit should take note of ‘Brown’?

    If the attorneys in any of the cases before that court have not cited the decision, why should the judges go hunting for it?

    P.S. How many election law lawyers on BAN? My guess is eleventy-seven.

  53. Jim, ignore the AZ bot. It’s there to spew lies and fake news links. There’s a reason Thomas W Jones lost every single case.

  55. “This year the Green Party expects to be on the Georgia ballot.”

    Oh, this is good to hear … because on Wikipedia it says that they won’t be on the Georgia ballot

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