Libertarian candidates for Governor, AG blocked from Tuesday ballot

Attorney for candidates still hopes they can run in November.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal Monday from the Libertarian Party of Ohio, ending the party’s efforts to field candidates for governor and attorney general on Tuesday’s primary ballot.

Mark Brown, the Capital University law professor representing the Libertarians, said he will ask the entire 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati for a rehearing as part of an effort to gain spots on the November ballot of gubernatorial candidate Charlie Earl and attorney general candidate Steven Linnabary.

“If we get it and win before November, (the Libertarians) can have candidates restored to the general election ballot,’’ Brown said in an e-mail. He added that in 2008, the federal courts added Libertarian candidates to the November election even though they did not run in a primary.

A three-judge panel of the 6th circuit last week unanimously upheld a ruling by a federal judge that the candidacy petitions filed by Earl and Linnabary were faulty.

Secretary of State Jon Husted made the original decision to remove them from the statewide ballot

The Libertarians quickly responded by asking first Justice Elena Kagan and then Justice Clarence Thomas to delay enforcement of the appeals court ruling. After Kagan rejected the request, Thomas referred the entire appeal to the nine-member high court and the justices turned it down.

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