The Supreme Court on Friday denied independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s attempt to reinstate his name on the New York presidential ballot.
The unsigned order leaves intact a lower court decision that declined to put his name back on the Empire State’s ballot ahead of the Nov. 5 election. The request was initially submitted to Justice Sonia Sotomayor and referred to the full court. There were no noted dissents.
Kennedy, who ended his independent presidential bid and endorsed former President Donald Trump during the summer, has been involved in multiple legal battles to remove or keep his name on ballots in various states.
But in New York, the now-Trump-supporting environmental lawyer wanted his name to remain available on ballots throughout the state. His court-ordered removal from the ballot stemmed from lower court rulings that found that he falsely claimed residency in New York.
The courts determined that the address Kennedy listed in Katonah, New York, was not his primary residence. In his appeal, Kennedy argued that he rented a room from a childhood friend and had stayed overnight once, though no lease agreement was signed.
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Kennedy’s legal team maintained that the residency issue was irrelevant to the presidential election process and that the state’s enforcement of this requirement violated his First Amendment and 14th Amendment rights. However, the Supreme Court’s rejection ends his effort to stay on the ballot in the Empire State.
Kennedy’s request is the third 2024 election-related case to reach the Supreme Court. Earlier, the justices allowed part of an Arizona voter registration law to proceed but blocked provisions requiring citizenship proof to vote for president or by mail. This month, the court also rejected an attempt to place Green Party candidate Jill Stein on Nevada’s ballot.