EXCERPTS FROM RULING As a result of the actions of the national committee at the Nashville meeting, Gargan and Young were divested of any and all authority to represent themselves as the Reform Party's national party chair and treasurer. While there was a dispute at the meeting about the definition of "two-thirds ... of registered members of the national committee" as it relates to the removal of national officers ... both Gargan and Young were removed by 109 affirmative votes, which is more than is required under either definition. ... Any actions taken by Gargan or Young, allegedly acting as national officers of the Reform Party (with regard to the Las Vegas convention or otherwise) since their removal as national officers on Feb. 12, 2000, were ... without legal effect. The Reform Party will suffer irreparable injury if Gargan and Young are not enjoined from acting as the authorized representatives of the party." ... It is hereby ordered that John J. Gargan and Ronn Young and their representatives, agents, servants, employees and attorneys, and any and all persons acting in concert with them, are hereby enjoined from acting as officers of the Reform Party of the United States of America, including the Convention Committee, and shall hereby immediately cease and desist from any and all activities in such representative capacity. ...

"This will now allow us to go forth and mount a competitive race for the White House this fall," Choate said after the ruling. He will announce plans Tuesday to move the party's headquarters to Washington and to raise $1 million by the time of the August convention.

U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon ordered Jack Gargan, who had fought Choate for the chairmanship, and Treasurer Ronn Young to stop all activities relating to those positions, including soliciting donations, spending the party's money, operating an official Web site and planning a convention. The party "will suffer irreparable injury" if the two men continue, the judge said.

Gargan said he would leave after 10 years helping build the party.

"In a way, I've won. This is has been a rats nest for me. This has been eight months of hell," Gargan said in a telephone interview from his home in Florida. "There will be a huge exodus from the party at this point."

Still, Choate said he would ask Gargan and his supporters to stay. "The door is open," he said. "Our goals are the same."

Moon's ruling, in Lynchburg, Va., came after a two-day hearing last week.

A rowdy meeting of party leaders in Nashville, Tenn., last month elected Choate to replace Gargan, an ally of Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura. But Gargan argued in court that the meeting was convened illegally and the vote to oust him and install Choate was invalid.

In his opinion, Moon rejected all of Gargan's arguments. Citing the party's constitution and Robert's Rules of Order, a handbook on parliamentary procedure, the judge said that the Nashville meeting did not require 30 days notice as Gargan contended, that Gargan's refusal to call it to order -- the action that led to televised brawling -- was "an improper attempt to subvert the will of the controlling body," and that the 109 votes to remove Gargan and Young were more than required.

For the moment, Moon's ruling resolves a dispute that has seen Gargan and Choate running parallel chairmanships complete with dueling Web sites and plans for nominating conventions. But the party still has other problems.

The departure of its most popular elected leader, Ventura, and the void created by Perot's silence on political issues have left the third party a patchwork of state organizations caught up in a variety of fights waged in courtrooms and cyberspace.

The Texas billionaire and two-time presidential candidate refused Monday to comment on the suit or answer questions about whether he plans to jump into the race and compete for his party's nomination against former Republican Pat Buchanan.

"When I'm ready to say something, I'll let you all know," Perot said, following remarks to the Federation of American Health Systems in Dallas. Without offering specifics, Perot blamed Medicare, the federal health program for the elderly, for failing to change enough since its inception more than 30 years ago.

He has refused to speak directly with Buchanan, the front-runner for the Reform Party nomination.

Buchanan, meanwhile, is being sued by New Hampshire Reform Party Chairman John Talbott, who says the conservative columnist is illegally using the party's name in his state and trying to elect his own convention delegates at a meeting in Manchester on Saturday.

On another front, Buchanan and Choate are threatening to go to federal court over rules by the Commission on Presidential Debates that would exclude the Reform Party's nominee from those events unless he is scoring 15 percent or better in public opinion polls. Without participation in the debates, Buchanan has said, the party has no chance of winning the White House.

Buchanan's poll standing is dismal now, but he predicts he will break into double digits by June.

The Federal Election Commission, meanwhile, said the new leaders need to do a better job of keeping the government informed of the whereabouts of millions of taxpayer dollars for the party's nominating convention.

Nearly $2.5 million in public money that was granted the third party for its nominating convention was not stored in the Martinsville, Va., bank that party officers had named in their application for the funding, according to an advisory brief filed with the judge by the FEC.

According to court documents, most of the money was spread among at least four bank accounts from Virginia to Florida.