Supreme Court declines to restore RFK Jr.’s name on New York presidential ballot

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will not appear as a candidate for president on New York’s ballot after the Supreme Court declined to restore his name.

Kennedy was excluded from the state’s ballot after lower courts determined the independent candidate falsely claimed residency there because his Katonah, N.Y., address was not his fixed and permanent residency.

His attorneys argued in court filings that taking him off the ballot would deprive his New York supporters of their right to cast their votes for him, noting that the lower courts did not find that anyone was “misled.”

“The address on Kennedy’s petition was and is entirely immaterial — both to voters and to New York,” his attorneys wrote in their request, also noting that the independent candidate had rented a room in the home of a childhood friend and stayed there overnight on one occasion.

New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office, which is involved in the case, opposed the “extraordinary, and extraordinarily belated” emergency injunction that would have put Kennedy back on the state’s presidential ticket despite its certification deadline being passed and absentee ballots already being mailed out.

“Relief would, at minimum, require the State to direct county boards to invalidate tens of thousands of ballots that are currently in the hands of voters, and then craft, proof, print, test, translate (as required), and transmit replacement ballots,” New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood wrote to the justices, suggesting voters would be “confused” if they received multiple ballots.

Kennedy suspended his campaign last month and backed former President Trump’s White House bid. Since then, he’s sought to remove his name in key swing states while remaining on the ballot elsewhere — a move that’s sparked a series of legal challenges.

The independent candidate’s effort to remain on New York’s ballot is his first to reach the nation’s highest court, but he isn’t the first candidate to appeal to the justices. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court denied an emergency request by the Green Party to restore its presidential candidate, Jill Stein, to Nevada’s ballot.