Newt Gingrich drops quest for Virginia ballot

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich has dropped his legal quest for a slot on the Republican presidential primary ballot in Virginia next month.

On Saturday, lawyers for Gingrich filed paperwork giving up the fight with a federal district court in Virginia. They confirmed the decision on Monday afternoon in a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

In the filings, Gingrich gave no explanation for throwing the in the towel on the legal battle for a spot on the March 6 ballot. However, recent rulings in the dispute have not gone his way. On Jan 13, U.S. District Court Judge John Gibney ruled that Gingrich and three other candidates who failed to make the ballot: John Huntsman, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum, waited too long to challenge Virginia's procedures. Gibney said a Virginia requirement limiting petition circulators to residents of the state was probably unconstitutional, but there was not enough time to sort that out before the election. On Jan. 18, a three-judge panel of the appeals court upheld the thrust of the lower court's ruling.

Gingrich could have sought to have the appeals court's decision reviewed by the full bench of that court, or he could have asked the Supreme Court to step in. (Chief Justice John Roberts is assigned to handle emergency applications from the Fourth Circuit.) A lawyer for Gingrich did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment for this post.

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