U.S. Supreme Court justices on Monday honed in on whether a Delaware attorney had standing to question the state’s rules on judicial party balance despite not applying for a judgeship while unaffiliated with either major party.

That issue was the first to be addressed by Chief Justice John Roberts in Delaware Gov. John Carney’s case against James Adams, the first case to be heard by the Supreme Court this fall, and was discussed about as extensively as the issue of whether Delaware has the right to uphold provisions that categorically exclude anyone who’s not a Republican or a Democrat from judicial positions.