McCarthy v. Secretary of the Commonwealth

By a previously issued order of this court, we directed the Secretary of the Commonwealth to place the names of the plaintiffs Eugene J. McCarthy and John H. Stouffer2 on all ballots prepared for the November 2, 1976, general election as independent candidates for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States, respectively. Due to the extreme time constraints imposed by the impending election and the advance time necessary to prepare ballots, we issued an order without opinion. We now issue this opinion to explain the reasoning which led to our order and to answer the…