On January 13, the Ninth Circuit heard No Labels Party v Fontes, 24-563. This is the lawsuit filed by No Labels Party to prevent any candidate from filing for congress or state office in the No Labels Party primary. No Labels had won the case in U.S. District Court. No Labels was intended by its founders to be a party that would only participate in the presidential race. It did not want to have any candidates for anything else.

The three judges on the Ninth Circuit panel are Holly A. Thomas, Salvador Mendoza Jr, and Anthony D. Johnstone. All are Biden appointees. All three judges seemed to favor the state’s position. The state’s position is that all qualified parties must nominate by primary, and it would be unfair to the people who signed the Americans Elect petition, and the people who registered into the party, to block candidates for other office.

The judges seemed to feel that it might be different if Americans Elect had told the voters who signed their petition that the party, once it qualified, would not be nominating for congress and state office. The judges felt the party could have challenged the mandatory wording on the party petition, saying that the party would hold a primary, before it started circulating that petition. They also felt that the party would be free to publicly say that they don’t approve of their non-presidential nominees.

Assuming No Labels loses the case, there surely will be No Labels candidates in 2026 for Congress and state office in Arizona, because the party is still ballot-qualified, by virtue of having enough registrants to remain on the ballot. The latest tally shows the party has registration of .74% of the state total, and it needs .667% to remain on the ballot.

The New Alliance Party was founded in New York in 1979 by Fred Newman, and it has undergone many transformations during its lifetime. As a minor party, it made history when it placed its presidential nominee, Lenora Fulani, on the ballot in all 51 jurisdictions in 1988. It also got her on the ballot in 40 jurisdictions in 1992.

In 1994, the party dissolved itself and reformed as the Patriot Party, together with some Ross Perot supporters. Then, in 1995, when Ross Perot created the Reform Party, the Patriot Party dissolved itself and went into the Reform Party. But the core of the original New Alliance organization kept a somewhat separate existence, and became a pressure group called the Committee for a Unified Independent Party. Many years later, it morphed into Independent Voting, which held itself out as the defender of independent voters.

Now, Independent Voting, a non-profit organization, is dissolving itself. Jackie Salit, who led the organization after Fred Newman, continues work at the Arizona State University Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy.

Leaders of the New Alliance Party were responsible for persuading Congressman John Conyers to introduce a bill in Congress to outlaw restrictive state ballot access laws in federal elections. The bill was also introduced in 1987 and 1989 by Conyers, and then later it was introduced in two sessions of Congress by Congressman Tim Penny. After that, it was introduced in four more sessions of Congress by Ron Paul. In 1998 it received a vote on the House floor and received 67 “Aye” votes. It is possible a similar bill will be introduced this year.

On January 6, the self-described watchdog group Accountable.US asked the New York State Board of Elections to investigate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for voting on November 5 (by postal mail) from the address 84 Croton Lake Rd., Katonah. That is in Westchester County. Kennedy has been voting at that address for decades. But the state courts removed him fro the New York ballot last year because they believed that was not his domicile. See this press release from Accountable.US.