On June 27, Pennsylvania’s minor parties asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the ballot access case that was filed last year. The case is Rogers v Cortes, no. 06-1721.

The U.S. Supreme Court hasn’t accepted a ballot access case brought by a minor party or an independent candidate since 1992. It has repeatedly denied cert petitions filed by minor party and independent candidates since 1992. Cases the Court refused to hear (since 1992) came from Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

The recent Pennsylvania case involves the fact that Pennsylvania even excludes parties from the ballot that meet the state’s definition of “political party”, unless those parties have registration membership of 15% of the state total. If the Pennsylvania system existed in the District of Columbia and in Massachusetts, even the Republican Party would be off the ballot, since it doesn’t have registration as high as 15% in those two jurisdictions.