RFK Jr. won’t be on New York ballot after Supreme Court rejects appeal
By John Fritze, CNN
(CNN) — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to appear on New York’s presidential ballot even though he suspended his campaign last month and backed former President Donald Trump.
The high court turned away Kennedy’s longshot appeal without comment and there were no noted dissents.
In an emergency appeal filed this month, the former independent presidential candidate argued voters who signed petitions supporting his placement on New York’s ballot had “a constitutional right…to vote for him, whether he is campaigning for their vote or not.”
State election officials dumped Kennedy’s name because he included an invalid address on his nominating petition.
State election officials countered that voters would be “severely harmed” by holding up the mailing of overseas ballots to accommodate Kennedy’s request. Kennedy’s position, they said, would “not only severely disrupt the state’s election processes and trigger substantial voter confusion, but also cause New York to miss federal deadlines for mailing overseas and military ballots.”
Requiring candidates to disclose their home address, as Kennedy failed to do, officials said, was a minimal burden because “a ‘reasonably diligent’ candidate could be expected to provide truthful and accurate information on their candidacy filings.”
In August, Kennedy suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed Trump, pledging to remove his name from the ballot in a handful of battleground states yet encouraging supporters in non-competitive states traditionally won by Republicans or Democrats to vote for him.
But in the weeks since he dropped out of the race, Kennedy has made more direct appeals to his supporters to back Trump regardless of where they live, while also withdrawing his name from the ballot in some deeply Republican states.
On Friday, Kennedy urged attendees at a rally in Walker, Michigan, to back Trump in the battleground state.
“My name is going to appear on Michigan’s ballot. I don’t want you to vote for me. I want you to vote for Donald J. Trump,” Kennedy said. “That’s the only way I’m going to get to Washington, DC, and do all the things to help end the war, end the chronic disease epidemic, to end the censorship, to end the surveillance, and all the other things that I entered this race to do.”
Lower courts, including the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals, had rejected Kennedy’s efforts to challenge New York’s decision.
It’s the second presidential ballot access appeal to reach the Supreme Court in recent weeks, underscoring the spoiler role third party and independent candidates can play in tight elections. On Friday, the Supreme Court denied an emergency request from the Green Party to ensure presidential candidate Jill Stein could appear on the ballot in the battleground state of Nevada.
CNN’s Aaron Pelilsh. Ali Main and Steve Contorno contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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