Federal Judge Grants Ramsey English Cantu’s Application for Emergency Temporary Restraining Order Against Texas Democratic Party
By: Miguel Munoz, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2019
United States Senior District Judge David A. Ezra for the Western District of Texas, San Antonio Division, granted Ramsey English Cantu’s Application for Emergency Temporary Restraining Order against the Texas Democratic Party and Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa, enjoining the Texas Democratic Party, Chairman Hinojosa, and any other persons who are active concert or participation therewith from taking any further action to prepare the paper ballots and electronic voting equipment with respect to the Democratic Party General Primary Election for State Representative, District 74, only, pending a preliminary injunction hearing on January 13, 2020 at 1:30 P.M. at the John H. Wood, Jr. United States Courthouse in San Antonio, Texas.
U.S. Senior District Judge Ezra ordered that the Temporary Restraining Order be extended beyond the 14 days normally allowed since it will not have an opportunity to hear the merits of the case from both parties until the preliminary injunction hearing on January 13, 2020 and that the TRO will remain in effect until the Court rules on the preliminary injunction.
Cantu filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Texas Democratic Party and Chairman’s Gilberto Hinojosa’s December 10, 2019 decision to disqualify him as a candidate for the Democratic Party Texas House of Representative District 74 nomination primary election to be held on March 3, 2020 after Heriberto “Eddie” Morales, Jr., a candidate for the same race, filed a complaint with the Texas Democratic Party.
Cantu alleges that the legal precedents and statutes used by the Texas Democratic Party and its Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa to disqualify his candidacy violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution facially and as applied to him and that it treats certain officeholders as ineligible for legislative candidacy is irrational, unequal, and fundamentally unreasonable.
Cantu further alleges that Section 19 of Article III of the Texas Constitution violates the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution facially and as applied to him because candidates do not receive notice about what types of remuneration from public office might render a candidate ineligible for legislative office.
Cantu also alleges that there is no formal process under Texas law to challenge the determination made by election or party officials concerning last-second eligibility challenges, and that Defendants did not give him the proper time or notice to challenge the determination of his ineligibility. Cantu also alleges that the Texas Democratic Party and its Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa violated the Texas Election Code by misapplying the controlling case law in reaching their determination.
Judge Ezra noted that in addition to Defendants Texas Democratic Party and Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa, the State of Texas and candidate Heriberto “Eddie” Morales, Jr. both plan to intervene in the federal lawsuit filed by Cantu. Judge Ezra noted that both the State of Texas and Heriberto “Eddie” Morales, Jr. appeared at the December 16, 2019 TRO hearing and the Court allowed them to make arguments.
Cantu alleges that he resigned as Mayor of the City of Eagle Pass, Texas on November 12, 2019 at a City Council meeting and later registered as a candidate on November 15, 2019, while the Eagle Pass City Council approved on November 18, 2019 an Ordinance calling for a Special Officers Election to fill the office of Mayor at a February 1, 2020 election. Thus, Cantu contends that he resigned from his mayoral office and will be replaced before the Texas State Legislature convenes in 2021.
Among the election deadlines noted by Judge Ezra in the TRO include (1) the Tuesday, December 17, 2019 deadline for county and state chairs to electronically submit candidate information and status for posting on the Secretary of State’s website; (2) the Wednesday, December 18, 2019 deadline for the state party chair to notify a county chair in each county in which the candidate’s name is to appear on the ballot that certification of candidates who has been posted by Secretary of State; (3) the Thursday, December 19, 2019 deadline for county chairs or a county chair’s designee to conduct a drawing for candidate order on ballot; and (4) the January 18, 2020 deadline for early voting clerks to mail ballots to military and overseas voters.
With the entry of the State of Texas and candidate Heriberto “Eddie” Morales, Jr. as intervenors in Cantu’s federal lawsuit, the federal court will have all the necessary parties before it and allow them to make their own legal arguments on the merits of Cantu’s federal lawsuit challenging his disqualification as a candidate for the Texas House of Representative District 74 Democratic Party nomination election on March 3, 2020.
Judge Ezra is expected to make a ruling on the merits of this contentious legal case at the January 13, 2020 preliminary injunction hearing or shortly thereafter.
