Republican U.S. presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz is accompanied by his wife Heidi and daughter Caroline as he speaks about the primary election results in Florida, Ohio and Illinois during a campaign rally in Houston, Texas March 15, 2016. REUTERS/Trish Badger

ALBANY, N.Y. (Reuters) - A New York appeals court on Thursday upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a suit seeking to remove Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz from the state’s primary ballot because of his Canadian birth.

The New York Appellate Division agreed with the lower court ruling that the suit should be thrown out because it missed the deadline for filing an objection to Cruz’s appearance on the April 19 ballot. Lawyers for Cruz successfully argued that the objectors had filed their petition nearly three weeks late.

The appeals judges said they would not address the merits of the case, saying they were “academic.”

Roger Bernstein, a lawyer for the petitioners, said his clients intend to appeal the decision.

New York residents Barry Korman, 81, of Manhattan, and William Gallo, 85, of Manhasset, had filed the suit, arguing that because Cruz was born in Canada, he is not a “naturally born” citizen as the Constitution dictates for a U.S. president.

Cruz has defended himself against similar claims in multiple states, saying he was a U.S. natural born citizen at birth because of his mother’s U.S. citizenship at the time.

Cruz was born in 1970 in Calgary, Alberta.