Do I have rights with a previous job application?

I was employed in a position with a local county government for four and a half years. The program that I worked in for that county was discontinued and transferred to a neighboring county so my position was eliminated. I applied and interviewed with the new county and was offered the position, which I declined at the time because I had a very specific concern about the offer, but I made it clear that I was still interested in doing the job, but would like to negotiate terms of the offer. The new county was not willing to negotiate with me and re-listed the position. The position has gone unfilled, and I recently approached them about the position again and was told that I had missed the deadline to apply for the position (I had missed it by less than 24 hours). Their application states that applications are kept on file for six months, so that means that my application that I had previously submitted should have been acceptable for the new posting, as long as it was within six months (it was), correct? The job requires very specific training and the likelihood of another applicant being more qualified than I is very small. I want to know if I have any legal rights with respect to my application, and being told that I'd missed the deadline to apply, even though I had previously applied and my application should still be on file with the employer.