Political Science Professors Walter Dean Burnham and Thomas Ferguson have published “Americans are sick to Death of Both Parties; Why Our Politics is in Worse Shape than we Thought” in Alternet. The article was posted December 18, 2014.

Burnham was an expert witness on behalf of the New Party, twenty years ago, when it challenged the ban on fusion in Minnesota. When that case, McKenna v Twin Cities Area New Party, reached the U.S. Supreme Court, Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote the decision. Rehnquist upheld the ban on fusion, and in his decision, Rehnquist quoted Burnham out-of-context, to make it seem as though this eminent political scientist supported the ban on fusion, when the truth was the exact opposite. The decision in the McKenna case is the only U.S. Supreme Court decision in history to uphold a ballot access law on the basis that the nation has an interest in a “two-party system.” Thanks to Independent Political Report for the link to the article.

According to this article, it is likely that a ballot-qualified Independent Party will soon come into existence in Louisiana. Louisiana permits groups to become ballot-qualified parties if they have at least 1,000 registered members, and pay a one-time fee of $1,000.

There are approximately 80,000 voters who wrote in “Independent” on the voter registration forms, in the blank that asks the applicant to choose a party. But Louisiana had a law forbidding any party from being named the “Independent Party”. However, the legislature repealed that law in 2014, effective January 1, 2015. Therefore, there is no legal barrier to the formation of the party, assuming someone pays the fee of $1,000. Now that the idea has been publicized, the individuals mentioned in the story probably realize that if they don’t pay the fee and fill out the paperwork, someone else will.

Here is a link to the Louisiana voter registration form. Scroll down. The form lists the qualified parties and gives them each their own check box. Voters who don’t want to be members of any party are supposed to choose “no party” from the form.

Qualified parties in Louisiana can’t have their own presidential primary unless they have registration of 5%. Assuming the Independent Party comes into existence, it would be only about half-way to qualifying for its own presidential primary.

Other states with a ballot-qualified “Independent Party” are Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, and Oregon. Thanks to Randall Hayes for the link to the newspaper story.

The U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. circuit, will hear Tuaua v USA, 13-5272, on February 9, 2015. This is the case over whether persons born in American Samoa are constitutionally entitled to be U.S. citizens, without having to go through the naturalization process. Some of the plaintiffs now live in one of the fifty states, but they are not permitted to vote if they haven’t gone through naturalization. Over the years, Congress by statute has authorized citizenship for the residents of other U.S. overseas possessions, but has never taken that step for American Samoa.

Eni Faleomavaega, the Delegate to the U.S. House from American Samoa when this case was filed, had intervened in the lawsuit in support of the status quo. However, he was defeated for re-election on November 4, 2014. Here is an article about his election defeat. The new Delegate is Aumua Radewagen.