Panel reverses decision, Lewis back off ballot
(AFP) – 8 hours ago
PHILADELPHIA — Retired American athletics star Carl Lewis, a nine-time Olympic champion, was kicked off the New Jersey election ballot in the state senate race by a federal appeals court on Tuesday.
It is the latest setback for the 50-year-old former track and field star in a see-saw court battle over whether he qualifies under a four-year residency requirement to run for a senate seat.
The court said Tuesday that Lewis does not meet the state’s four-year residency requirement for Senate candidates. They said the fact Lewis voted in California as recently as two years ago weighed heavily in their decision.
“Under these circumstances, he cannot show that the New Jersey constitutional provision has been applied unevenly as to him,” reads the decision.
This decision comes just over a week after the same three-member appeals panel issued a ruling that put Lewis’ name back on the ballot.
The panel then agreed to hold a follow-up meeting which led to Tuesday’s reverse decision.
Court documents did not explain, however, why the three-member panel came to a different conclusion than they did last week.
Lewis has been knocked on and off the ballot in a string of court rulings since announcing his candidacy five months ago.
Lewis grew up in southern New Jersey and settled in California. He bought homes in New Jersey in 2005 and 2007 but voted in California in May 2009.
Lewis rose to fame by winning four gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
He won five more golds over the next 12 years and finished second to Ben Johnson in the 100 metre final of the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Johnson tested positive for steroids and Lewis was awarded the gold.
Lewis has faced his own allegations of using performance-enhancing drugs. Eight years ago Dr. Wade Exum, the United States Olympic Committee’s director of drug control administration from 1991 to 2000, revealed that Lewis failed three drug tests in the run up to the 1988 Summer Games.
The US Olympic Committee allowed Lewis to compete in Seoul after Lewis claimed the positive tests were the result of “inadvertent” use.
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Carl Lewis has been kicked off the New Jersey election ballot (AFP, Erika Santelices)
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