Cornel West campaign to appeal judge’s decision barring him from Pa. ballot

Attorney Matthew Haverstick, a longtime Republican Party representative and counsel for Cornel West, a third-party presidential contender, announced on Friday that West intends to fight a federal court ruling that excludes his name from Pennsylvania’s ballot. Haverstick stated, “We think there is time for changes to implemented to vindicate his constitutional rights in a meaningful way.”

U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan recognized the constitutionality of West’s claim even though he decided against him. Ranjan stated in his decision on Thursday that “if this case had been brought earlier, the result, at least on the present record, may have been different.”

Additionally, Ranjan has “serious concerns” about the way Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt is imposing restrictions on West’s candidacy under the state election code. Lawyers with strong Republican affiliations are part of West’s legal team.

In his ruling removing West from the ballot, Ranjan stated that the court “isn’t confident enough based on the record presented that all 67 counties will be able to implement the injunctive relief requested within the time parameters, without resulting in major errors.” Ranjan cited federal precedence in his decision, stating that unless there is a strong justification, courts should refrain from meddling in elections.

He claimed that including West on Pennsylvania’s ballot at this late date would be confusing and probably lead to conflicts after the election. On September 17, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed a decision by a lower court that barred West from running for the commonwealth. It concurred with Schmidt’s office that, by the deadline of August 1, West had not submitted the necessary affidavits for 14 of his 19 presidential electors.

Federal court was then sued by the West campaign. The lawsuit claimed that the candidate’s constitutional rights to equal protection and freedom of association were violated by Pennsylvania’s application of election law to candidate affidavits required of presidential electors. Melina Abdullah is a professor at California State University who was selected by left-wing philosopher and theologian Kant as his vice presidential running mate.