In May 2012, the Constitution, Green, and Libertarian Parties filed a federal lawsuit, arguing that the unique Pennsylvania ballot access system violates the U.S. Constitution because it requires minor parties and independent candidates to risk paying court costs of over $100,000 if their statewide petitions are found invalid. Recently, the same Republican Party activists who challenged the statewide Libertarian and Constitution Parties sought to intervene in the federal lawsuit.

Here is the brief filed by the proposed intervenors. The brief does not grapple with the core issue in the lawsuit. Instead it defers to the state’s brief. Here is the state’s brief, which is mostly concerned with standing and ripeness. The state brief does attempt to deal with the main issue in the case, but it does so from the viewpoint that the existing system (in which only courts determine if a signature is valid) is to be taken as a “given.” The state’s brief misses the whole point, which is that Pennsylvania does not have a state interest in leaving the petition-checking process entirely to courts and judges. The state, and the intervenors, do not seem to notice that no other state forces state courts to be the first and only government agencies to examine petitions.

Peta Lindsay and the Peace & Freedom Party recently filed this brief in Peace & Freedom Party v Bowen, the case pending in U.S. District Court over whether the Secretary of State had the authority to barr Lindsay from the party’s presidential primary ballot. Because the primary is over and Lindsay is not running in California in the November election, the case will proceed after the election is over. A hearing is set for late September.

An earlier post today mentions that the Arkansas Secretary of State has determined that Rocky Anderson did not have enough valid signatures to be on the ballot as an independent presidential candidate. The same office has also determined that American Third Position also did not have enough valid signatures, nor did the independent presidential petition for Virgil Goode. This means that the only presidential petition that succeeded this year was the petition of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

The Green Party and the Libertarian Party were already qualified parties, so they did not need to petition for President. Arkansas requires 1,000 signatures for independent presidential candidates, and also requires 1,000 signatures for unqualified parties to place a presidential nominee on the ballot.