Lindsay

Like Stephen Colbert before her, Peta Lindsay didn’t want to become president *1063 of the United States. She just wanted to run. To that end, she sought a place on the 2012 presidential primary ballot for the Peace and Freedom Party. She properly filed her nomination papers and, as required by California law, was generally recognized as a candidate for that party. See Cal. Elec.Code § 6720. (In her brief, Lindsay refers to Election Code section 6041. But that section pertains to the Democratic Party. We therefore assume that she means to refer to section 6720, which pertains to the Peace and Freedom Party.)

Nevertheless, when California Secretary of State Debra Bowen distributed the certified list of the candidates generally recognized to be seeking their parties’ nominations, Lindsay discovered that her name wasn’t on it. See Cal. Elec.Code §§ 6722, 6951. At twenty-seven years of age, Lindsay wasn’t constitutionally eligible to be president. See U.S. Const, art. II, § 1, cl. 5. But was she eligible to nro?

Lindsay claims she was, and so brings suit seeking vindication of her rights under the First Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and…