(Photo: JASON MINTO/SPECIAL TO THE NEWS ) Story Highlights Last month, Amanda Longacre was disqualified and first-runner up Brittany Lewis was elevated to the state crown 
 
 She also seeks a waiver so she can compete for Miss America in September 
 
 Former Miss Delaware Amanda Longacre, booted from the crown for being too old, sued the state and national scholarship pageant organizations on Wednesday. The lawsuit seeks $3 million in damages – $2.5 million for the class of contestants certified to compete then disqualified, and $500,000 for her – along with restoration of her titles as Miss Pike Creek and Miss Delaware. "This case has no merit and we will vigorously defend it," said the Miss America Organization in a brief statement, 
 
 Miss Delaware Scholarship Organization spokeswoman Carolyn Nelson said Wednesday night that the group would have no comment on the lawsuit. EARLIER STORY/VIDEO: Miss Delaware too old; Miss Wilmington steps up 
 
 First, officials told her she was too old and said she had to return her crown, wouldn't get her scholarships and couldn't compete for Miss America. Officials say Miss America pageant rules require contestants to be between 17 and 24.
– The 24-year-old beauty queen stripped of her Miss Delaware title for being too old is suing national and local pageant organizers to get her crown back. Amanda Longacre will still be 24 when the Miss America pageant is held in September, but she turns 25 the next month and says that while she advanced through the competition, she was never told that turning 25 before the end of 2014 would disqualify her. She has filed a $3 million class-action lawsuit, seeking $500,000 for herself and $2.5 million for other contestants who were certified to compete and then disqualified, the News Journal reports. Longacre—who deferred her master's program and her Department of Justice internship after being crowned Miss Delaware—is also seeking a waiver so she can still compete in the Miss America pageant. Her suit alleges that pageant organizers knowingly recruit ineligible contestants to boost participation. The president of the Miss America organization says Longacre's lawsuit is "without merit and we will defend it vigorously," reports the AP.