On July 16, 2010, the Libertarian Party of North Dakota and three LPND candidates filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota against the state of North Dakota, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. They sought a declaratory judgment, alleging that their exclusion from the general ...
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On July 16, 2010, the Libertarian Party of North Dakota and three LPND candidates filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota against the state of North Dakota, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. They sought a declaratory judgment, alleging that their exclusion from the general ballot after failing to gain a state-imposed threshold number of votes in the primary election violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution.
On September 3, 2010, the District Court (Judge Ralph Erickson) granted the state's motion to dismiss, because a state may limit access to the general ballot to only those candidates who were able to gain a "substantial modicum" of support in the primary election. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the decision on appeal (659 F.3d 687) and the Supreme Court denied certiorari (132 S.Ct. 1932).
Jonathan Forman - 06/13/2013
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