A would-be contender for retiring U.S. Rep. Steve Israel’s seat won’t get his name on a primary ballot after monthslong legal battle, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
A three-judge panel of the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York overturned a lower court decision calling for an Oct. 6 Republican primary in the state’s 3rd Congressional District, comprising portions of Nassau, Suffolk and Queens counties.
The decision brings to a close a long fight waged by Philip Pidot, a former fraud investigator who argued that he had been wrongfully barred from the GOP primary ballot in June.
That’s not so unusual. But what is unusual is that the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled orally from the bench on the question, vacating the injunction and reversing the district court.
Listen to the last ten seconds of the oral argument in the case.