A few year ago, I blogged about a rather extraordinary series of cases from the Virgin Islands concerning candidate qualifications. A candidate previously convicted of tax evasion was kept off the ballot by the Virgin Islands Supreme Court. A federal court ordered otherwise. The Virgin Islands Supreme Court ignored it.

A similar dispute has arisen recently. Kevin Rodriquez was elected to the legislature, but some claimed he was not a three-year resident of the Virgin Islands, which meant that he could not serve in the legislature. After litigation, the Virgin Islands Supreme Court ordered that he not be seated. The Third Circuit last week reversed. In doing so, it approvingly cited the power of the Board of Elections to judge qualifications before the election (a dubious proposition, as my earlier posts have noted).