In re Nomination Petition of Robert Jordan (Appeal of Fred Runge)

Summary

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court considered a challenge to Robert Jordan’s nomination petition for State Representative from the 165th Legislative District. The Court held that Jordan would not satisfy the Pennsylvania Constitution’s one-year district-residency requirement before the general election and directed that his name be removed from the ballot. The opinion also addressed whether residency-based eligibility challenges are justiciable under the Pennsylvania Election Code.

Holdings

1. A timely nomination-petition challenge alleging that a candidate for the General Assembly cannot satisfy Article II, Section 5's constitutional qualifications is justiciable under Section 977 of the Pennsylvania Election Code.
2. A candidate for the Pennsylvania House must have resided within the geographic boundaries of the respective current legislative district for one year next before the election and continuously through Election Day, subject to the constitutional exception for absence on public business.
3. After decennial redistricting, residency is measured by the geographic areas comprising the new district. A candidate who has resided for at least one year within the geographic area that becomes a new district may qualify despite a change in district number; a candidate who moved between geographic areas that are not ultimately combined into the same new district cannot satisfy the one-year requirement.
4. A candidate's good faith or lack of intent to deceive does not cure the absence of a necessary constitutional qualification; a candidate who cannot satisfy the one-year residency requirement is ineligible to run, regardless of whether the eligibility statement was knowingly false.
5. Footnote 7 of In re 1991 Pennsylvania Legislative Reapportionment Commission did not waive or suspend Article II, Section 5's residency requirement for Jordan's candidacy.

Questions Presented

1. Whether a timely challenge to a General Assembly candidate's constitutional age or residency qualifications under Article II, Section 5 of the Pennsylvania Constitution is justiciable under Section 977 of the Pennsylvania Election Code.
2. Whether Jordan satisfied the requirement that a Pennsylvania House candidate be an inhabitant of the respective legislative district for one year next before the election.
3. Whether Jordan's nomination petition was fatally defective because he could not truthfully attest that he was eligible to serve in the office sought.
4. Whether footnote 7 of In re 1991 Pennsylvania Legislative Reapportionment Commission waived or rendered inapplicable the one-year residency requirement after late redistricting.

Disposition

reversed