Kucinich Loses In Federal Court on Texas Ballot Access

[ZombieHorde]

On January 11, U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel ruled that Dennis Kucinich was properly excluded from the Texas Democratic presidential primary ballot, because he wouldn’t sign an oath saying he would “fully support” whomever the Democrats eventually nominate for president. Kucinich will probably appeal to the 5th circuit. During the oral argument, the judge expressed the fear that if Kucinich could prevail, that this would cause many more lawsuits to be filed against major political parties in the future.

Assuming that the decision is upheld on appeal, this is one more sign of the growing legal strength of political parties in the U.S. to control their own affairs, even including access to their own primary ballots. To the extent that this trend continues (and it has been continuing for the last 20 years), the case against restrictive ballot access laws for new and minor political parties, and independent candidates, also grows stronger. The whole basis for upholding restrictive ballot access laws in general elections is that “anyone” can run in a major party primary. Thus, in 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Georgia’s restrictive ballot access laws and said if the Socialist Workers Party candidates couldn’t get on under their own label, they were free to run in major party primaries (footnote 25 of Jenness v Fortson). That theory is looking weaker and weaker.

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Link:
http://www.ballot-access.org/2008/01/11/kucinich-loses-in-federal-court-on-texas-ballot-access/

Would you sign the oath?