[JURIST] A federal court ruled [opinion, PDF] Thursday that a Connecticut campaign finance law discriminated against minor party candidates in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments [text]. The state's Campaign Finance Reform Act [text], which provided public funding to candidates in elections for state offices, established a Citizens' Election Program [official website] under the supervision of the State Elections Enforcement Commission. In a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] the state's Green and Libertarian Parties, among others, sought an injunction against the program under their First Amendment right to political opportunity. Judge Stefan Underhill found that the program imposes a "severe burden on the political opportunity of minor party candidates" in violation of the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection doctrine because, among other things, it:

provides participating major party candidates public financing at windfall levels..., permits major party candidates who are as equally “hopeless” as minor party candidates in many districts to become eligible for full funding without first requiring such hopeless major party candidates to make the same threshold showing of public support required of minor party candidates..., [and sets] additional qualifying criteria for minor party candidates [that] are nearly impossible to achieve.