On April 11, Tennessee officials filed a notice of appeal in the lawsuit Green Party of Tennessee v Hargett. The U.S. District Court had struck down two election laws: (1) the requirement that new parties sign an oath that they don’t advocate the overthrow of the government; (2) that new parties must meet the 5% vote test in their first election, but already qualified-parties only need to meet the vote test every two elections.

The practical effect of the decision, which came out on March 14, was to put the Green Party and the Constitution Party on the ballot for 2014. They had appeared on the ballot for the first time in 2012, but the decision says they are entitled to two tries to meet the 5% vote test.