Court rejects Perry appeal for inclusion on Virginia ballot

Rick Perry's appeal to appear on Virginia's March 6 primary ballot was denied Tuesday by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, effectively exhausting legal options for the Texas governor and other Republican candidates hoping to be added to the commonwealth's ballot.

The court denied Perry's request to grant an injunction that would have prevented the state from going forward and printing ballots in a 22-page order, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch.

The ruling means that Perry — along with Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and John Huntsman, who had also failed to meet Virginia's difficult qualifying rules — will not appear on the primary, setting up a two-man race between Ron Paul and Mitt Romney.

The court said in its opinion that it could not grant the "extraordinary" remedy requested. "If we were to grant the requested relief, we would encourage candidates for president who knew the requirements and failed to satisfy them to seek at a tardy and belated hour to change the rules of the game."

Perry had maintained that Virginia's ballot inclusion requirements — which require candidates to each obtain 10,000 signatures, with at least 400 coming from each congressional district — were overly burdensome and unconstitutional.

“Virginia ballot access rules are among the most onerous," Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan told ABC News in a statement. "We believe that the Virginia provisions unconstitutionally restrict the rights of candidates and voters by severely restricting access to the ballot, and we hope to have those provisions overturned or modified to provide greater ballot access to Virginia voters and the candidates seeking to earn their support.”

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