Among the plaintiffs in the suit, which concerns violations by the CPD and the Federal Election Commission, are the Green Party and the Libertarian National Committee. The purpose of the suit is to change the rules that obstruct third party candidates from participating in presidential debates.

The CPD was created by the Democratic and Republican parties "for the express purpose of keeping third party and independent candidates out of debates," according to the plaintiffs.

Governor Johnson's Our America Initiative and related project, Fair Debates, are at the forefront of the efforts to reform the debate rules.

A similar suit was filed prior to the 2012 campaign. In his interview, Johnson compared the outcome of that suit and the current action:

"It's important to note that our 2012 suit was, unavoidably, filed very late in the process. Ironically, we had to be excluded in order to have a claim, and the CPD was very careful to not formally exclude anyone until right before the first debate. That timing issue clearly hurt our case." – Gary Johnson