Libertarian Party of New Hampshire v. Gardner, 843 F.3d 20

Background

New Hampshire amended its ballot-access law (HB 1542, 2014) to delay the start for gathering nomination petition signatures to January 1 of the election year, shortening the practical window from ~21 months to ~7 months.
Under New Hampshire law, a political party gains automatic statewide ballot status if a candidate received ≥4% in the prior Governor or U.S. Senate race; otherwise party must submit nomination papers with signatures equal to 3% of votes cast in the prior general election.
Libertarian Party of New Hampshire (LPNH) challenged the January 1 start / shortened window as a facial violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments; the district court granted summary judgment for the State and LPNH appealed.
The undisputed record showed LPNH previously qualified via petitions, that signature gathering is largely done by paid petitioners, and LPNH spent ≈$40,000 to collect ~19,000 signatures in 2012; LPNH estimated ~$50,000 would be required under the shortened regime.
The First Circuit found the case not moot (capable-of-repetition-yet-evading-review) and proceeded to the merits on de novo review.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Facial challenge validity of HB 1542 (start date + shortened window)	January 1 start and 7-month window facially burden LPNH’s associational and voting rights; facial standard met	Burden is reasonable and lesser than regimes previously upheld; statute has legitimate sweep	Court rejected facial challenge; regime constitutional
Burden level and comparability to Jenness	The January 1 start/limited months significantly increases practical burden (less time, higher paid-gatherer costs, weather, single-signature-per-cycle rule)	Burden is modest: 3% in 7 months is materially less than Georgia’s 5% in 6 months (Jenness); money/volunteers, not time, drive success	Court held cumulative burden is less than that sustained in Jenness and therefore permissible
Government interest and post-hoc justifications	State’s reliance on ballot-clutter/modicum-of-support interests is post hoc and should be discounted	Even if belated, modest burdens permit courts to accept litigation-stage justifications; legislature need not re-state full rationale for incremental amendments	Court credited state interests (avoiding ballot clutter / ensuring modicum of support); post-hoc justification acceptable given minimal burden
Mootness / Justiciability	LPNH had suspended petitioning pending suit; 2016 election passed so challenge might be moot	State argued lack of live controversy for 2016 cycle	Court found exception (capable-of-repetition-yet-evading-review) and retained jurisdiction

Key Cases Cited

Williams v. Rhodes, 393 U.S. 23 (1968) (invalidated Ohio’s onerous multi-part regime that effectively monopolized ballot access)
Jenness v. Fortson, 403 U.S. 431 (1971) (upheld Georgia’s 5% signature requirement over six months as a permissible modicum-of-support rule)
Storer v. Brown, 415 U.S. 724 (1974) (remanded where signature pool restrictions altered burden analysis)
Anderson v. Celebrezze, 460 U.S. 780 (1983) (balancing test for early filing deadlines that burden associational rights)
United States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739 (1987) (Salerno formulation for facial challenges: no set of circumstances standard)
Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party, 552 U.S. 442 (2008) (facial-challenge caution; uphold statutes with plainly legitimate sweep)
Illinois State Bd. of Elections v. Socialist Workers Party, 440 U.S. 173 (1979) (invalidated inconsistent/more burdensome lower-level signature requirements)
Norman v. Reed, 502 U.S. 279 (1992) (struck requirements with unconstitutional breadth across jurisdictions)
Crawford v. Marion County Election Bd., 553 U.S. 181 (2008) (plurality applying balancing to minimal burdens; declined to decide partisan-motivation claim)
Libertarian Party of Me. v. Diamond, 992 F.2d 365 (1st Cir. 1993) (recognizing state interest in avoiding overloaded ballots and frivolous candidacies)