On July 30, the Louisiana Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of Jimmy Fahrenholtz, who wanted to run for U.S. House in the Democratic primary on September 6. The State Court of Appeals had earlier tied 4-4 on whether he should be on the ballot. The case is Williams v Fahrenholtz, 2008-ca-0961. The issue was whether a candidate for Congress can be kept off the ballot because part of his declaration of candidacy contains an untrue statement relating to whether he had any outstanding campaign finance fines or unpaid assessments.

The outcome contradicts 90 years of jurisprudence, that candidates for Congress cannot be kept off the ballot because of any crimes or punishments. The precedent is so strong, candidates for Congress have even been permitted to run from prison, or while fugitives from justice. However, in this Louisiana case, the candidate did not raise the constitutional issue at the trial court level, so the appeals courts wouldn’t fully consider it either. Thanks to Randall T. Hayes for this news. For more information, see this story.