On October 5, the New Jersey Republican Party filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State, so as to be able to replace one of its nominees for Assembly, 38th district. New Jersey elects all its legislators on November 3, 2015. See this story. The party will choose a replacement for the candidate who dropped out on October 8. But unless it wins the lawsuit, that candidate won’t be on the ballot. New Jersey permits substitution but the deadline had already passed.
In 2002, the New Jersey courts allowed the Democratic Party to substitute a candidate for U.S. Senate after the incumbent dropped out of the race, even though the deadline had passed. Based on that precedent, one would think that the Republicans would be able to substitute a candidate this year; the “deadline” was apparently treated as just a suggestion in that situation.
what happened to the rule of law?