Breaking: New repressive court ruling. The fight is on!

We’re not going to take this lying down. And we hope you don’t either. Win or lose, we are going to raise hell against this judicial repression of third parties and independents. And we need your help now to do this.

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals has just declined our petition for a rehearing of their flawed July 21 decision, where the Court failed to rule on the Constitutional arguments we put before them. Instead they ruled on a different claim settled decades ago. It was as if the Court didn’t read the legal brief submitted by our attorney, Oliver Hall of the Center for Competitive Democracy.

If that wasn’t enough, the reasons cited by the court in that July decision are an insult to the majority of voters now calling for more choices in our elections. The court cited a 50-year old precedent that argued “hopeless candidacies” and “splintered parties” without pre-existing “significant” public support are unworthy of public funding.

This reasoning effectively serves as an enforcement action for duopoly, preventing small, new parties from appearing on presidential ballots to challenge the status quo. 

Please contribute today so we can take our case to the Supreme Court and push this battle into the court of public opinion. 

Of course there’s no guarantee of a just outcome, but a Supreme Court filing will provide a bigger springboard to expand public discussion and connect the dots between the bipartisan FEC, the suppression of third parties/independents and the broader crisis of democracy we face.

You may recall, we are fighting a disabling FEC rule, “section 9032(6),” that cuts off public funding for third party and independent candidates before the crucial final weeks of signature collection, if the major parties hold early conventions.

The rule is vulnerable to legal challenge because it violates an ironclad, Constitutional requirement that restricting public funds for certain groups requires a “governmental interest” to be served. But no such interest has ever been proposed for tying public funds for minor party candidates to arbitrary convention dates of major parties.

This rule resulted in the FEC demanding our 2016 campaign repay over $175,000 in ballot access costs five years after the fact because of this rule unbeknown to us at the time.

Please contribute what you can today! We must file our legal arguments with the Supreme Court in November and build support in the court of public opinion now. Your financial support covers our bare bones costs—including legal expenses, FEC compliance software, email software, and any residual FEC liabilities. Valiant volunteers do the rest. Contributions of any size—$5 or $500 (up to the $2700 cumulative limit)—are deeply appreciated. (Online & check info here.)

We need politics outside the corporate duopoly more than ever. As we speak, that duopoly has brought our world to a state of shock and awe—with fires, floods and drought of biblical proportions, crushing extremes of inequality, endless war approaching the nuclear brink, and a crisis of our democracy. At a time when nearly two-thirds of voters are clamoring for another political option, this struggle for fair matching funds for alternative candidates is more urgent than ever. And there’s not a moment to lose.

Thank you so much for all you do for people, planet, peace and democracy.


Jill Stein
Green Party Presidential nominee 2012, 2016

Thank you for your support!

~We need to raise $40,000 urgently for the cost of this next phase of our court battle

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