There are two pending lawsuits against the presidential debates rule that requires 15% in the polls. One of those cases is Level the Playing Field v Federal Election Commission, in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., 1:15cv-1397. Journalist Sam Husseini, founder of VotePact.org, has written a proposed amicus curiae brief on the side of the plaintiffs. However, the FEC has asked the judge not to let him file that amicus. The judge will decide whether to permit the filing. This will be the first time the judge in this case will have had to make any type of procedural decision that is contested by the two sides to the lawsuit.

The other pending debates case, Johnson v Commission on Presidential Debates, has not had any activity since May 2016.

On June 21, the Ohio Libertarian Party filed its opening brief in the Sixth Circuit in Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, 16-3537. The party lists these issues for the court to decide: (1) Whether the Ohio Republican Party engaged in state action within the meaning of U.S. 42 USC 1983 when it selectively enforced an Ohio law and sabotaged the Libertarian Party’s primary; (2) whether Ohio’s Chair of its Personnel Review Board engaged in state action when he selectively enforced an Ohio law and sabotaged LPO’s primary; (3) Whether the Secretary’s Chief Elections Officer engaged in an unlawful conspiracy to selectively remove LPO’s gubernatorial candidate from LPO’s 2014 primary; (4) whether Ohio’s Senate Bill 193 violates the Equal Protection Clause by providing only to some recognized political parties a mechanism for registering members; (5) whether Ohio waived its 11th amendment immunity by voluntarily intervening and actively defending SB 193.