2024 Elections
Major national news outlets reportedly are drafting an open letter to President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump's campaigns urging them to debate this fall. Biden has threatened not to debate at all, and Trump doesn't have a solid track record committing to debates.
2022 Midterms
The Free and Equal Foundation hosted a presidential debate in New York City that featured third party candidates running in various states across the country. The event focused on many of the biggest issues facing the US, from immigration to criminal justice reform.
Open Primaries
As the political landscape in the United States gears up for the 2024 presidential election, the media's focus is often on the perceived threats to democracy posed by individual candidates or movements, like the rhetoric around the MAGA crowd and former President Donald Trump, who is treated as the
Presidential Debates
The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is scheduled for Tuesday, September 29, at 9 pm (Eastern). Plenty of commentators, though, have questioned whether either candidate should debate the other from a campaign strategy standpoint. Others have wondered if a substantive debate on the nation’s most
Presidential Debates
An appellate court will hear oral arguments in an ongoing lawsuit against the Commission on Presidential Debates for its exclusionary debate rules that protect the two major parties from competition in presidential elections. The DC Circuit of the US Court of Appeals has scheduled oral arguments for Monday, February 24,
Presidential Debates
The exclusionary presidential debate rules that prevent any candidate outside the Republican and Democratic Parties from participating is another critical cog in the anti-competitive electoral machine that is crippling our representative democracy.
Presidential Debates
Commission on Presidential Debates Update: The Court has issued filing deadlines for the Commission on Presidential Debates Complaint: * Level the Playing Field's motion for Summary Judgment is due by 9/15/2017 LPF’s mission is to promote greater competition and choices in elections for federal office, particularly
Presidential Debates
The legal battle against the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) entered a new chapter this week. Plaintiffs in Level the Playing Field, et. al. v. FEC recently filed a second complaint, arguing that the FEC continues to ignore a "mountain of evidence" against the debate commission, and is
Presidential Debates
We over at Third Candidates took a look at the controversial debate access criteria that has been criticized for keeping third party and independent candidates out the important presidential debates. We spoke with political experts, the authors of this criteria - the Commission on Presidential Debates, and critics who claim
Presidential Debates
A challenge to the Commission on Presidential Debates was effectively dismissed in federal court Friday. U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled that there is little merit to the claim that the CPD is violating antitrust laws and there is no evidence the commission is intentionally working to shut
Presidential Debates
Better for America (BFA), a nonpartisan organization seeking ballot access for an independent presidential candidate, announced Wednesday that it filed a motion in federal court to join Level the Playing Field's (LPF) lawsuit to open the fall presidential debates to a candidate outside the two major parties. “Level
Presidential Debates
For two decades, the Commission on Presidential Debates has excluded every candidate from the general election presidential and vice-presidential debates but two: the nominees of the Republican and Democratic Parties. They do so by using a rule excluding every candidate who fails to poll at at least 15% support in