The Supreme Court on Friday
declined to restore independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name to the New York ballot. The state excluded him after lower courts found he had falsely claimed residency in the Empire State because the Westchester County address he used in his filings was not his fixed, permanent residence.
Taking Kennedy off the ballot would deprive New York supporters of their right to cast a vote for him, his attorneys argued. They added that lower courts failed to find that anyone was "misled" by the address. In their request they wrote, "The address on Kennedy’s petition was and is entirely immaterial — both to voters and to New York."
New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office opposed what they called Kennedy’s "extraordinary, and extraordinarily belated" emergency injunction, calling it a last-minute effort that would disrupt the election process.
Absentee ballots have already been mailed out, and New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood argued that reissuing ballots would confuse voters and create logistical challenges.
Kennedy suspended his campaign last month and endorsed former President Donald Trump. He’s fought to remove himself from ballots in swing states while seeking to stay on ballots in other states, efforts that have led to multiple court battles.
Kennedy’s New York ballot battle is his first to reach the Supreme Court, but he isn’t the first to appeal to the high court. The Supreme Court earlier this month denied an emergency request by Green Party candidate Jill Stein to restore her name to Nevada’s ballot.