On July 2, some Libertarian Party candidates, and an independent candidate, filed a federal lawsuit against the Virginia law that always puts the Democratic and Republican nominees on the ballot on the top-most position. Sarvis v Judd, eastern district, 3:14cv-479. Here is a copy of the 17-page Complaint.

The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Robert Payne, who has an excellent record on cases involving minor parties and independent candidates. See his dissent in Fishbeck v Hechler, 85 F.3d 162 (4th circuit, 1996). In that case, while sitting on a Circuit Court panel, he dissented when the other two judges upheld West Virginia ballot access laws in a Libertarian Party challenge to the May petition deadline for non-presidential candidates.

Back on February 6, 2014, several independent candidates filed a lawsuit against the petition deadline for independent candidates. The case has been inactive, but now U.S. District Court Judge James M. Moody has set a conference on the case for July 15, and a possible trial on July 27. The case is Moore v Martin, eastern district, 4:14cv-65.

The Arkansas petition deadline for non-presidential independent candidates is March 3. It had been in May, but the 2013 session of the legislature moved it to March, even though similar independent candidate petition deadlines in Arkansas had been held unconstitutional three times before, in 1974, 1976, and 1988. The 1976 decision was summarily affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Noted writer Michael Lind has this essay on Salon, making the case that the U.S. would be far better off with a multi-party system, and also making the case for proportional representation.