Lana Leguía, a Libertarian candidate for New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, will remain off the general election ballot after the state Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal of an appellate ruling removing her from the race. Leguía said she now intends to take the dispute to federal court.
The New Jersey Globe reported on August 7 that the state Supreme Court declined to hear Leguía’s appeal, leaving in place a July 31 Appellate Division decision that invalidated most of her nominating petition signatures. That lower court previously found that Secretary of State Dale Caldwell lacked the authority to disregard a state requirement that circulators of general election petitions be New Jersey residents.
Leguía initially submitted 759 signatures, with state election officials accepting 755. However, the New Jersey Republican State Committee challenged 670 signatures on the grounds that they were collected by three New York residents, running afoul of the residency requirement. Without those signatures, Leguía was left with 85 valid signatures, placing her well below the 250 required to qualify for the ballot.
An administrative law judge initially agreed with the challenge, but Caldwell then restored Leguía to the ballot, finding that Arsenault v. Way, a 2021 federal court ruling invalidating a similar residency requirement for primary petitions, should also apply to independent and third party candidates. Republicans soon appealed, arguing that Caldwell lacked the authority to disregard the state requirement, and the appellate judges ultimately agreed.
According to the Globe, the New Jersey Supreme Court left that ruling in place without deciding whether the residency requirement itself is, in fact, constitutional. The justices instead declined to consider Leguía’s constitutional claim based on how it had developed through the earlier proceedings. The decision also came despite the Attorney General’s Office asking that Leguía be restored to the ballot, even as the office continued to defend the residency requirement as constitutional.
Despite the result, Leguía later said in a campaign update on August 8 that the state Supreme Court decision would not end her effort to challenge her removal, which she argued goes beyond just her congressional candidacy. She said she now intends to “seek justice in Federal Court.”
“Neither the cowardice of the NJ Supreme Court nor the corruption of the Attorney General will prevail in disenfranchising the voters of District 7,” Leguía said. “This isn’t about me. It is about maintaining free elections and guaranteeing voters choices in the future.”
Leguía called New Jersey’s ballot access system an “illusion of choice the state spoon feeds” to voters, arguing that the U.S. Constitution establishes exclusive qualifications for federal offices. She argued that states cannot impose additional requirements or disqualifications on federal candidates beyond those established by the Constitution.
“Demand the barriers for ballot access to be removed,” she added. “Change starts with ballot access.”
Her removal leaves Republican incumbent Tom Kean Jr., Democrat Rebecca Bennett, and independent candidate Seamus Patrick O’Toole on the ballot in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District.
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