Kentucky has a law that restricts the ability of a candidate to appear twice on a ballot–for example, for Senate and Kentucky. There have been murmurings that Senator Rand Paul would seek to get the law changed. Though Paul’s counsel suggests that this law is inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent.

“Federal law governs federal elections, and the Supreme Court has made it clear that states cannot impose additional qualifications beyond those in the Constitution,” Doug Stafford, a senior adviser to Mr. Paul, wrote by email. “We are not seeking to change the law, but rather to clarify that the Kentucky statute does not apply to federal elections.”

He didn’t say it outright, but this suggests that Paul believes the law, as applied to him, is unconstitutional.

Would this would pose any problems under U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton–specifically, can a state add additional requirements to be listed on the ballot for federal office. In this case, the additional requirement would be not running for another office.

I posed this question earlier to Rick Hasen and Derek Muller. Both said this law is okay.

@JoshMBlackman I don’t see a problem. Most ballot access restrictions are ok under US Term limits and Cook v. Gralike

— Rick Hasen (@rickhasen) March 10, 2014

@JoshMBlackman @rickhasen I’d argue states have more control over presidential elections, so conditions acceptable.

— Derek T. Muller (@derektmuller) March 10, 2014

 

Stay tuned.