Rider v. Mohr (John T. Elfvin, W.D.N.Y. 1:01-cv-610), Sementilli v. Commissioners of Elections (Richard Conway Casey, S.D.N.Y. 1:04-cv-6936), and Soleil v. Board of Election (Brian M. Cogan, E.D.N.Y. 1:10-cv-3565)
In 2001, a candidate for town board filed a federal complaint in the Western District of New York challenging his exclusion from the primary-election ballot for the Conservative Party, of which he was not a member. The district judge concluded that the party was entitled to scrutinize nonmembers for adherence to party philosophy before accepting them as candidates. Three years later, a district judge in the Southern District of New York determined that a prospective candidate for a state-assembly primary-election ballot who was excluded for not being a member of the party was not entitled to name a replacement candidate. In 2010, a district judge in the Eastern District of New York denied relief to a pro se attorney who refused to file a certificate accepting the Independence Party’s permission to run in the party’s assembly primary election.
Subject: Getting on the ballot. Topics: Getting on the ballot; primary election; party procedures; pro se party; recusal; case assignment.

One of many Case Studies in Emergency Election Litigation.