Reports of Tom DeLay’s retirement may have been premature.

In a blow to the Texas Republican Party, a federal judge ruled Thursday that DeLay cannot be replaced by another GOP candidate in the race for Congressional District 22.

Instead, according to a ruling by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, either DeLay must agree to run for the office from which he retired last month, or the Republican Party will have no congressional candidate to run against Democrat Nick Lampson and Libertarian Bob Smither in November.

Judge Sparks’ ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the state Democratic Party against Texas GOP Chairman Tina Benkiser, designed to prevent Benkiser from officially declaring DeLay ineligible to be on the general election ballot.

“What the judge ruled is the Republican Party must honor the primary election that they held,” said Chad Dunn, general counsel for the Texas Democratic Party. “It’s up to DeLay and his party to decide” whether DeLay will run, or whether the party will field no candidate at all.

“Today’s decision that a candidate’s eligibility for federal office cannot be determined until Election Day effectively throws the federal election process into total chaos, and we will appeal this decision in order to protect the voters of Texas and their right to vote for a nominee of their choice,” Benkiser said in a statement Thursday afternoon.

Such an appeal would have to go to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

DeLay could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Mike Malaise, campaign manager for Lampson, said “from our campaign’s perspective we’re just going to use this time to continue to get our positive message out… regardless of who ends up on the ballot.”

“Tom DeLay is not ineligible to be the Republican Party nominee for the United States House of Representatives from Texas District 22,” Judge Sparks said in his ruling. “…any previous declaration of ineligibility made by Benkiser is void.”

DeLay had announced in April that he intended to resign from Congress, which he did June 9. A day earlier, Benkiser declared him ineligible to appear on the November ballot, based on documents showing he’d become a Virginia resident.

In his analysis of the case, Judge Sparks said, “After the smoke clears, it appears the real issue in this case is whether the Republican Party can avoid DeLay’s de facto withdrawal from the race by declaring him ineligible for the general election in order to replace him with another Republican candidate on the general election ballot.

“Under these circumstances, it seems clear the Texas election laws would prohibit such a replacement after the primary election if the winning candidate withdrew from the general election.”

Judge Sparks agreed with the Democrats’ assessment in the lawsuit, that it’s the U.S. Constitution that determines eligibility of congressional candidates. That document states a candidate must reside in the state of the office for which he or she runs - on election day, the Democrats argued. Judge Sparks agreed.

“The court holds that allowing Benkiser to declare DeLay ineligible at this time would amount to a de facto in-state residency requirement in violation of the United States Constitution,” Sparks wrote in his ruling.

Benkiser and state GOP officials defended the decision to declare DeLay ineligible.

“While federal law sets forth the requirements of those who may run for federal office, it allows the states to set requirements as to the time, place, and manner of federal elections to keep the election process from being disorganized and chaotic,” the state GOP said in a press statement. “Texas law allows candidates to be declared ineligible under certain circumstances and replaced on the ballot – it even sets forth a process to do so, a process that Democrats have themselves used on occasion.

However, Judge Sparks said If he adopted the GOP arguments in the case, “either political party could and would be able to change candidates after the primary election and before the general election simply by an administrative declaration of ineligibility by the party chair based on a candidate’s ‘move’ to another state.

“This,” he said, “would be a serious abuse of the election system and a fraud on the voters, which the court will not condone.

“Political acumen, strategy, and manufactured evidence, even combined with a sound policy in mind, cannot override the Constitution,” Judge Sparks said in the ruling.

“DeLay was chosen as the Republican nominee by the voters in the Republican primary, and he is still eligible to be the party’s nominee. He may, of course, withdraw, as is his right, but neither political parties, state legislatures, secretaries of state nor the federal courts may rewrite the United States Constitution.”

“The problem is, Tina Benkiser and Tom DeLay were looking at this from a political angle,” Malaise said, “and they failed to realize that judges are going to uphold the law.”

In a blow to the Texas Republican Party, a federal judge ruled Thursday that DeLay cannot be replaced by another GOP candidate in the race for Congressional District 22.

Instead, according to a ruling by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, either DeLay must agree to run for the office from which he retired last month, or the Republican Party will have no congressional candidate to run against Democrat Nick Lampson and Libertarian Bob Smither in November.

Judge Sparks’ ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the state Democratic Party against Texas GOP Chairman Tina Benkiser, designed to prevent Benkiser from officially declaring DeLay ineligible to be on the general election ballot.

“What the judge ruled is the Republican Party must honor the primary election that they held,” said Chad Dunn, general counsel for the Texas Democratic Party. “It’s up to DeLay and his party to decide” whether DeLay will run, or whether the party will field no candidate at all.

Attorneys representing the GOP could not immediately be reached for comment, but Benkiser, who is the sole defendant in the lawsuit, has the right to appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.