As reported by Hans von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation, the court challenge aimed at getting Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Jon Huntsman, and Rick Santorum onto the Virginia GOP primary ballot has failed:
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.)
Virginia does not allow write-ins on the primary ballot, so it looks like voters will have a choice between Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.
