I agree with you that the court ignored the relatively clear meaning of the law and instead decided replace it with their own decision. However, the NJ law is not as clear and explicit at the Texas election law.
I don't think that the Republicans are even trying to suggest that he can be considered ineligible under Texas law or can withdraw and be replaced.
They are claiming that because Delay isn't a resident of Texas he isn't and eligible candidate under the US Constitution. However, the US Constitution's requirements appear to only require that a candidate be a resident when he is elected.
No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen.
Delay still has a house in Texas and is occupying it at least at times. The only thing preventing him from being a resident of Texas is his own choice.
He's trying to undermine the authority of the States (all the States, not just Texas) to regulate their own elections with what might be considered a novel technicality at best.
That's not not an action I would expect from someone who wishes to be considered a leader among small government conservatives.
I don't think that Earle's charges against him have merit. From what I've seen his past techniques that have earned him criticism have been more of what I would qualify as aggressive rather than underhanded.
This particular act I consider underhanded, and also damaging to our nation's laws and the structure of our government if he's successful.
While we really can't afford to lose his seat in Congress to a democrat, and the Republicans in his district deserve to have a candidate from their party on the ticket, I hope this Judge's ruling stands.
Delay is the Republican candidate in that race. The person trying to keep Republicans from having the ability to vote for their party's candidate, the one the selected in the primary, is Delay himself. According to Texas law it's too late for him to back out. He needs to abide by the law.
To be honest, his actions in this case are making me question his other actions a bit more than I had been.
"However, the NJ law is not as clear and explicit at the Texas election law."
Hogwash. NJ law had a clear deadline and it was violated by the replacement of Torricelli.
" Delay still has a house in Texas and is occupying it at least at times. The only thing preventing him from being a resident of Texas is his own choice."
John Kerry has 6 fabulous houses in at least 4 different states. Is he eligible to serve as Senator in all 4 states?
In other words, does Texas law already declare him to be a non-resident? Would he still be eligible for in-state tuition at UT, for example? I don't know about the former, I am quite sure that the answer to the latter is "no".
In Gore 2000, the US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that it was a violation of equal protection for voters in some counties to have a recount, but not in others. The Supreme Court ruled that for a state-wide office you had to either recount all of the votes or none of them.
Fast forward to 2002, and the US Supreme Court refused to intervene in the Torricelli case, perhaps being gun-shy from Gore v. Bush. Regardless, they said that it was a state matter and let the NJ State Supreme Court decide. New Jersey ignored their own election laws in the name of "giving voters a competitive" election.
Now it is 2006 in Texas, and Texas is ruling that DeLay must stay on the ballot. Given that we now have the New Jersey State Supreme Court as a precedent, can someone make the argument that since this election is for a Federal office that all states participate in, that the voting rules should be the same for all people voting for offices in the chamber, that is, that it's unfair for Texans to be made to vote under opposite conditions than New Jerseyans when the situations are so similar? In other words, it is not equal protection among the states for New Jersey to be allowed to ignore their own election laws for Senator while Texas is not allowed to do the same.
-PJ