Ruling by top court keeps Libertarians on Texas ballots

The state’s high court Saturday rejected an effort by state and national Republicans to remove 44 Libertarian Party candidates from the ballot for failing to pay candidate filing fees.

The Texas Supreme Court said in a 12-page opinion that it could not grant the declaration of ineligibility sought by Republicans because the particular statute they invoked regarding the applications of the Libertarian candidates did not apply to them because the Libertarian Party nominates candidates through a convention.

“We’re pleased the court did the right thing,” Whitney Bilyeu, chair of Libertarian Party of Texas, said of the ruling.

The court said the ruling did not mean the filing fee requirement was “unenforceable.” Had the Republicans filed a petition of ineligibility by the Aug. 21 deadline, “the challenged candidates could potentially have been removed from the ballot,” according to the opinion.

Republicans filed the petition on the day of the deadline. The 3rd Court of Appeals dismissed it as moot, saying it was no longer timely because of the Aug. 21 deadline to declare a candidate ineligible. Republicans claimed a later deadline applied to their petition under the statute they invoked, which said an application for a place on the ballot can’t be

challenged “after the day before any ballot to be voted by mail is mailed.” This year, that date will be Sept. 18, they said.

Libertarians had said their candidates chose not to pay the fee for various reasons, including some who took a personal stand against a law they believed to be unconstitutional and others who did not have the funds. The filing

fees in Texas are $3,125 for the U.S. House, $1,250 for the Texas Senate and $750 for the Texas House.

A lawyer representing the Republican Party did not immediately return a request for comment.

Libertarians generally are seen as receiving votes that otherwise would go to Republicans, while Green Party candidates do the same for Democrats.

Bilyeu said the real fight is taking place in federal court, where the party is challenging the candidate

filing fee as unconstitutional, and in state court, where a separate challenge by Libertarian candidates is pending at the 14th Court of Appeals.

The state challenge resulted in a District Court order finding the fee unconstitutional, but that ruling is on hold while the appeal continues.

The lawyer in that case, Kathie Glass, the Libertarian candidate for governor in 2010 and 2014, said the law passed in 2019 “is not just unconstitutional, it’s impractical

and unworkable.”

“The Democrats very cleverly seized on it to get rid of their Green Party opponents,” said Glass, who practices law under her maiden name, Katherine Youngblood.

“The Republicans were scrambling to try and catch up,” she said. “They tried this Hail Mary, and the Supreme Court did the right thing.”

Before the Legislature passed House Bill 2504 in 2019, political parties that choose candidates at a convention — such as the Green and Libertarian parties — did not have to pay filing fees like Republicans and Democrats.

Now, candidates of all parties must pay a fee or collect petition signatures, including $5,000 or 5,000 signatures to run for the U.S. Senate or $3,125 or 500 signatures for the U.S. House.