Libertarian Party of Michigan v. Ruth Johnson

OPINION

ROGERS, Circuit Judge.

This case involves the Libertarian Party’s challenge to a Michigan election regulation—the “sore loser” statute—which prevents a candidate who has run in and lost a party primary from running as a candidate of another party in the subsequent general election. The Libertarian Party of Michigan asserts that Michigan wrongly prohibited its presidential candidate, Gary Johnson, from appearing on the November 2012 Michigan ballot for the Libertarian Party because he had previously run in (and lost) the Republican primary during the 2012 election cycle.

The election is…