  The distant type Ia supernovae data compiled by Perlmutter et al. (1999) are
used to analyze the Cardassian expansion scenario, which was recently proposed
by Freese and Lewis (2002) as an alternative to a cosmological constant (or
more generally a dark energy component) in explaining the currently
accelerating universe. We show that the allowed intervals for $n$ and $z_{eq}$,
the two parameters of the Cardassian model, will give rise to a universe with a
very low matter density, which can hardly be reconciled with the current value
derived from the measurements of the cosmic microwave background anisotropy and
galaxy clusters (cluster baryon fraction). As a result, this Cardassian
expansion proposal does not seem to survive the magnitude-redshift test for the
present type Ia supernovae data, unless the universe contains primarily
baryonic matter.
