National political correspondent David Weigel wrote an article in the Washington Post yesterday about the Libertarian and Green Parties’ upcoming filing of a lawsuit against the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), using a new legal argument:
The Libertarian Party and Green Party and their 2012 candidates for president are readying a legal complaint against the Commission on Presidential Debates, hoping that a new legal argument—an anti-trust argument—will break the “duopoly” that’s dominated the stage.
The legal complaint, which was sent early to The Washington Post, argues that a “cognizable political campaign market” is being corrupted by the commission’s rules. The commission, a private entity set up after the League of Women Voters’ 1992 debates allowed third-party candidate Ross Perot to participate, has withstood yearly assaults from the likes of Ralph Nader, Pat Buchanan, and former Congressman Bob Barr. None of them have gotten past a 1999 commission rule: No candidate gets on stage unless he or she is polling at 15 percent or better.
