I wonder who passed the Massachusetts law mandating that incumbents get their names listed first on the ballot? Why . . . it was the incumbents! Surprise, surprise.

Donald White is running for his local School Committee and he says, “It’s just not fair” that incumbents have their names listed first. So he is suing to overturn the law, an action he says “isn’t so much about the School Committee race as it is about the bias in the law that favors incumbents.”

Heather Gerken, an assistant professor at Harvard Law School, agrees that studies show a statistically significant advantage to having one’s name listed first on election ballots. She adds, “Incumbents already have so many advantages going into an election that anything you can do to reduce that advantage is likely to be a good idea and make for more competition.”

In fact, even the state’s highest court agreed back in 1972, when the late Paul Tsongas sued to overturn the law. They wrote at the time: “A candidate given a first ballot position has a distinct advantage over other candidates . . .” Yet, the court went on to say the present record “contains no basis for evaluating the comparative advantages and disadvantages of alternate systems” so the court took no action.

Isn’t it interesting how activist or sheepish the courts can be depending on the issue? Clearly, this is an unfair system. The so-called experts know it, the court admits it. How, then, can the court not toss out that system and make the legislature find something less biased? Maybe this time, they will.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.