Rick Perry is appealing the decision of U.S. District Judge John Gibney who ruled Friday that Perry would not be placed on the Virginia primary ballot. Perry had challenged that the strict 10,000-signature requirement to appear on the ballot was unconstitutional. Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, and Rick Santorum had joined Perry’s suit and as of now also will not appear on the ballot.
Judge Gibney had given Perry reason to hope he would rule on his side in comments earlier in the week. In the end, the judge agreed that the state’s signature requirement was unconstitutional, but ruled against Perry on a technicality: that he had waited to long to file the suit.
In the appeal filed today, Perry’s campaign said they couldn’t have filed any sooner (they filed two days after Perry was disqualified) without having pre-emptively filed before the it was clear whether they would collect enough signatures. But Perry is appealing the decision and given the time-sensitive nature of the case, with the March 6 primary less than two months away, the court has ordered lawyers for the state to respond by Monday.
