On January 23, 2019, the Alabama Libertarian Party filed a federal lawsuit against the Alabama policy that gives a free list of the registered voters to the qualified parties, but charges unqualified parties tens of thousands of dollars for the list. Libertarian Party v Merrill, m.d., 2:19cv-69.
The state filed a motion to dismiss the case on February 19, and the plaintiffs promptly filed a response. The state replied on March 12. Since then, U.S. District Court Judge Emily C. Marks, a Trump appointee, has not taken any action in this case. Meanwhile, the Alabama Libertarian Party has several petitions circulating, and the drives are handicapped by not having access to the list of registered voters.
In 1970 a 3-judge U.S. District Court in New York ruled that if a state gives a free list of the registered voters to the qualified parties, it must give a free list to unqualified parties that are petitioning. The U.S. Supreme Court summarily affirmed that decision in 1970. Socialist Workers Party v Rockefeller, 400 US 806. Alabama’s brief argued that perhaps the 1970 case, which had been filed by the Socialist Workers Party and the Socialist Labor Party, only meant to refer to unqualified parties that had already finished their petitioning and then wanted the list. But at the time the 1970 case was filed and won, the Socialist Workers and Socialist Labor Parties had not even begun to petition, because in 1970, they were only permitted to petition during the period August-October of an election year, and they won the case on June 18, 1970.
