Via Political Wire comes this report that a candidate for the 50th Congressional district in California may not in fact be a resident of the district. This may well have political implications, but the article suggests it may have legal ones as well. (“If Bilbray lives in Virginia, he may not be eligible to run for the congressional seat here.”)
I don’t think that’s right. In Schaefer v. Townsend, 215 F.3d 1031 (9th Cir. 2000), the Ninth Circuit held that “California’s requirement that candidates to the House of Representatives reside within the state before election violates the Constitution by handicapping the class of nonresident candidates who otherwise satisfy the Qualifications Clause.”