Laws

From the ongoing series I like to disagree with Libertarians by quoting Hayek to them:

Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party’s nominee for president, has filed a lawsuit in Texas demanding Senators John McCain and Barack Obama be removed from the ballot after they missed the official filing deadline.

[...]

Texas election code §192.031 requires that the “written certification” of the “party’s nominees” be delivered “before 5 p.m. of the 70th day before election day.” Because neither candidate had been nominated by the official filing deadline, the Barr campaign argues it was impossible for the candidates to file under state law.

[...]

“The facts of the case are not in dispute,” says Russell Verney, manager of the Barr campaign. “Republicans and Democrats missed the deadline, but were still allowed on the ballot. Third parties are not allowed on the ballot for missing deadlines, as was the case for our campaign in West Virginia, yet the Texas secretary of state’s office believes Republicans and Democrats to be above the law.”

Funny people, these Libertarians.

If they read some Hayek, they would perhaps appreciate that there is a fundamental difference between legislation (that which is written and passed by legislatures) and Law (that which one is expected to follow). While legislation certainly posits that all parties are equal and may even mandated that both major parties be taken of the ballot, the law is that the two major parties are different and will never be taken off the ballot.

They are, of course, correct in complaining that the Law (and often, the legislation) is discriminatory against third parties. This lawsuit is about showing this discrimination more than anything else.

However, such tactics rely on their being some amount of grass-roots outrage that the Libertarian Party (or the Constitution Party or some other Guns-and-Bitterness Party) was taken off the ballot. There isn’t any. This is no more than amusement.