Shane Goldmacher has this story in Politico, which says that some recognized Republican candidates for President are complaining about primary ballot access. One complaint is the very high filing fees some southern Republican Parties are charging for presidential candidates to get on the ballot. State laws in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina, and Texas permit the Republican Party to create their own barriers, beyond those mentioned in state law.

The irony is that neither states nor political parties are permitted to impose mandatory filing fees on candidates without giving any alternative method to get on the ballot. The two U.S. Supreme Court filing fee decisions make this clear. Both were unanimous. Bullock v Carter, a 1972 Texas case, involved filing fees set by political parties. Lubin v Panish, a 1974 California case, involved filing fees set by state law. In both cases the practices were unconstitutional because the fees were mandatory, with no alternative. Any Republican presidential candidate, mainstream or not, was free to file a lawsuit against the high fees in some southern states, but none did so.

As to petitions, no state requires more than 5,000 signatures for any candidate recognized by the media to get on a presidential primary ballot. By contrast, North Carolina requires independent candidates, and newly-qualifying parties, to get 89,366 valid signatures.

Former Congressman Virgil Goode, who was the Constitution Party’s presidential nominee in 2012, has become a campaign official in Donald Trump’s campaign in Virginia. See this story.