Judge Rules that Santorum, Gingrich, Perry and Huntsman are Right in VA -- Then Rules Against Them

Hans breaks the news over at his Heritage blog:

Federal district court Judge John Gibney has just issued a ruling in Richmond finding that the Virginia requirement that ballot petition circulators must be state residents is a violation of the First Amendment. However, he also held that the four GOP candidates who failed to make it onto the Virginia ballot because they did not meet the 10,000-signature requirement had waited too late to raise their constitutional claims. (Perry did not file suit until the end of December and the other three candidates joined his lawsuit last week.)

Under the legal doctrine of laches, parties with a claim have an obligation to assert it and cannot engage in unreasonable or unjustified delay.

So it’s just Romney and Paul on the Virginia ballot after all. Kind of ironic, when you think about it — the GOP base will have no representation on the ballot in the party’s own primary, in a state it must win in November.