The decision is in and Rick Perry who originally filed a lawsuit to obtain the Virginia primary ballot access, as well as Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman who later joined the lawsuit, will not be permitted to have their names listed on the VA primary ballot.
Via CBS6:
Federal District Court Judge John Gibney ruled against Texas Governor Rick Perry and other Republican presidential candidates who sued in an effort to appear on the ballot for the Virginia Republican primary in March
"In essence, they played the game, lost, and then complained that the rules were unfair," wrote Judge Gibney in his opinion released Friday afternoon in Richmond, Virginia.
Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Jon Hunstman later joined the challenge.
According to documents, the candidates asked the Court for a preliminary injunction ordering that they be listed on the ballot for the Virginia Republican primary despite the fact all failed to meet the 10,000 signature petition requirements to get on the ballot.
Only candidates Mitt Romney and Ron Paul met the requirements.
The candidates argue the 10,000 signature requirement and the Virginia rule that only people eligible to register to vote may collect the petitions violates the Constitution.
They also challenged Virginia's rule that required candidates secure 400 signatures from voters in each congressional district calling it "burdensome."
The judge ruled Virginia rules do infringe on First Amendment rights, but the challenge from the candidates came too late for courts to take action.
In his opinion, Judge Gibney wrote, "They [the candidates hoping to appear on the ballot] knew the rules in Virginia many months ago; the limitations on circulators affected them as soon as they began to circulate petitions. The plaintiffs could have challenged the Virginia law at that time. Instead, they waited until after the time to gather petitions had ended and they had lost the political battle to be on the ballot; then on the eve of the printing of absentee ballots, they decided to challenge Virginia's laws."
PDF of the ruling is HERE.
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