Pennsylvania Democrats have won legal challenges keeping the left-wing Party for Socialism and Liberation off the battleground state’s presidential ballot, at least for now, while a lawyer with deep Republican Party ties is working to help independent candidate Cornel West get on it.

The court cases are among a raft of partisan legal maneuvering around third-party candidates seeking to get on Pennsylvania’s ballot, including a pending challenge by Democrats to the filing in Pennsylvania by independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

A Commonwealth Court judge agreed with two Democratic Party-aligned challenges on Tuesday, ruling that the paperwork filed by the Party for Socialism and Liberation was fatally flawed and ordering the party’s presidential candidate, Claudia De la Cruz, off Pennsylvania’s Nov. 5 ballot.

Seven of the party’s 19 presidential electors named in the paperwork were registered as Democrats and thus violated a political disaffiliation provision in the law, Judge Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter wrote. Six voted in the Democratic Party’s primary on April 23.

“They literally voted in the Democratic primary and then turned around to try to be electors for a third-party candidate,” said Adam Bonin, a Democratic Party-aligned lawyer who filed one of the challenges. “You can’t do that.”

The Party for Socialism and Liberation didn’t immediately say whether it planned to appeal.

Meanwhile, a lawyer with longstanding ties to Republican candidates and causes went to court to argue that the Secretary of State’s office under Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro was wrong to reject West’s paperwork.

“I see no good reason for Mr. West to be kept off the ballot or Pennsylvanians otherwise prevented from voting for him,” the lawyer, Matt Haverstick, said in an interview. Haverstick declined to say who hired him or why.

The Secretary of State’s office is contesting the legal challenge, saying the paperwork lacked the required affidavits for 14 of the 19 presidential electors before the Aug. 1 filing deadline. A broader effort by conservative activists and Republican-aligned operatives is underway across the country to push the candidacy of the left-wing academic.

The 2024 Pennsylvania high school football season is upon us, and it is time to take a look at some of highest rated recruits in the state. In this series, we will focus on the top recruits at a handful of positions for a specific graduating class.

We started by introducing you to the top senior recruits at nine different positions – quarterbacks, running backs, linebackers, edge rushers, wide receivers, defensive backs, tight ends offensive linemen and defensive linemen.

Then we moved to the top junior recruits, where we started with the quarterbacks and running backs. Now we look at the guys blocking for them on the offensive line.

Of the 21 ranked players for the class of 2026 on 247Sports in Pennsylvania for the 2026 class, there are four offensive linemen listed – Kevin Brown of Harrisburg, Tyler Merrill of Cumberland Valley, Tyler Duell of West Chester East and Brendan Alexander of Central Valley.

Brown, a Penn State recruit, is the No. 2 overall recruit in Pennsylvania’s junior class while Merrill, who is uncommitted, is No. 4 overall.

All rankings are based off 247Sports.com.

1. Kevin Brown, Harrisburg; 6-foot-5, 270 pounds (No. 2 overall in Pennsylvania 2026 class)
Committed to Penn State

The Penn State commit also holds offers from Alabama, Florida, Auburn and Georgia, among others.

2. Tyler Merrill, Cumberland Valley, 6-foot5, 310 pounds (No. 4 overall)
Uncommitted

Holds nearly 30 offers heading into his junior campaign, including Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Notre Dame and Penn State.

3. Tyler Duell, West Chester East; 6-foot-5.5, 250 pounds (No. 12 overall)
Uncommitted

Starts his junior year holding offers from Duke, Kent State and Central Michigan.

4. Brendan Alexander, Central Valley; 6-foot-2, 270 pounds (No. 19 overall)
Uncommitted

Holds almost 15 offers, including Penn State, Michigan State, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Stay tuned to SBLive Pennsylvania all season long for all of your high school football coverage. You can check out our Pennsylvania high school football scoreboards all season long.

— Ryan Isley  | ryan@scorebooklive.com | @sblivepa

What questions do you have about the 2024 elections? What major issues do you want candidates to address? Let us know.

A couple weeks ago, delegates from around the country — including from Pennsylvania — voted virtually for Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee. The vote is an official party act normally performed during the convention. However, Democrats wanted to avoid going into the convention without a chosen candidate.

The last time the Democrats had an open, or “brokered,” convention was in 1968 — a condition that may have contributed to nominee Hubert Humphrey’s loss to Richard Nixon in the general election that year.

However, the Democratic National Committee wanted to give their 4,700 delegates an opportunity to “vote” for Kamala Harris at the convention and held a “celebratory” roll call on the floor.

The unofficial and ceremonial nature of the vote didn’t make it any less meaningful to Anne Wakabayashi, a political consultant and delegate from Philly.

“It was thrilling to have my vote counted for Kamala Harris as president of the United States,” she said. “As an AAPI [Asian American and Pacific Islander] woman, I’m particularly excited about making history in that way.”

Wakabayashi, who is married to her wife, with whom she is raising a stepson, said the election is personal.

“Another Trump presidency threatens my marriage,” she said. “It threatens my family. It threatens women’s rights, LGBT rights — it threatens every aspect of my life and threatens my kids’ schools. Everything is on the line here.”