The Philippine Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that a senator who spent much of her life in the United States is eligible to run for president, reversing a decision by the election commission and putting her in line to reclaim her position as front-runner.

Voting 9-6, the judges allowed first-term Sen. Grace Poe to run in the May election, said court spokesman Theodore Te, a decision that will shake up what is now a tight race to succeed President Benigno Aquino III.

Poe, 47, was abandoned as a child in a church and adopted. She moved to the United States when she was a student and settled there.