On February 21, Common Cause of Connecticut, as well as some other organizations, asked the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear Green Party of Connecticut v Lenge, 10-795, the case in which the Green and Libertarian Parties challenge Connecticut’s discriminatory public funding. See the 32-page brief here. Common Cause hired Seth P. Waxman, a former Solicitor General of the United States, to submit its brief.
The brief says the Court should not take the case because there is no conflict among the lower courts on the issue of how much states can discriminate against independent and minor party candidates, when they provide for public funding. But, of course, this is because Connecticut is the only state that discriminates for or against any candidate (when it distributes public funding), on the basis of the candidate’s partisan affiliation or independent status. The brief characterizes minor party and independent candidates generally as “hopeless candidacies”, ignoring the fact that Connecticut voters elected an independent candidate to the U.S. Senate in 2006, and a minor party candidate to the Governorship in 1990. The brief also ignores the evidence in this case that 166 individuals were elected to state legislatures, or governorships, around the nation, in the 25 years before the case was filed, even though they were not the nominees of either the Democratic nor the Republican Party. There have been even more such candidates elected since the case was filed, including thirteen independent or minor party state legislators elected in 2010 alone, around the nation.
The state’s brief, asking the Court not to hear the case, is here.