Alito rejects Leguía’s last-ditch bid to get on NJ-7 ballot

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Friday night denied Libertarian Lana Leguía’s last-ditch effort to get on the November ballot as a candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s 7th district, leaving intact a state court order that disqualified her nominating petition.

Alito denied Leguía’s emergency application without explanation, the latest in a string of judicial setbacks for her effort to remain in the race.

Leguía had submitted 759 petition signatures and needed 250 to qualify for the ballot. But the New Jersey Republican State Committee challenged 670 signatures collected by three circulators who were not New Jersey residents.

Vote-by-mail ballots went out today in one of the nation’s most closely watched House races between two-term incumbent Rep. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) and Democrat Rebecca Bennett.

An administrative law judge initially agreed that the signatures violated a state law requiring petition circulators to be registered New Jersey voters, leaving Leguía with just 85 valid signatures. Secretary of State Dale Caldwell later reversed the administrative ruling and restored Leguía to the ballot, relying on a 2021 federal court decision that struck down a similar residency requirement for circulators of Republican and Democratic primary petitions.  Caldwell concluded that the same reasoning should apply to independent and third-party candidates.

But a state appellate court stayed Caldwell’s decision, finding that the secretary lacked authority to decline to enforce the statute without the required involvement of the attorney general. The New Jersey Supreme Court refused to hear her challenge – twice.

Leguía then took her case to federal court – where U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi rebuffed her — and ultimately to Alito, who handles emergency applications arising from New Jersey as the circuit justice for the Third Circuit.

In her Supreme Court application, Leguía argued that New Jersey effectively changed its rules after the petition deadline after allowing out-of-state circulators for five years.  She alleged violations of equal protection and due process and argued that changing ballot-access rules after candidates had relied upon them ran afoul of Supreme Court election-law precedent.

“It is an unfair change of the rules in the middle of an election contest, uniquely applied to one candidate,” her attorney, Paul Rossi, said in a brief.

Alito’s denial leaves Leguía off the ballot without any further recourse, and does not resolve the merits of those constitutional claims.