On Monday, September 23, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. requested the United States Supreme Court to intervene urgently to reinstate his name on the presidential election ballot in New York.
The request was jointly filed by Kennedy’s campaign team, the super Political Action Committee American Values 2024 supporting Kennedy’s campaign, and a voter who signed his petition.
In mid-August, U.S. District Judge Christina Ryba ruled that the address provided on Kennedy’s petition in the New York City suburbs was not his permanent residence but a “false address” set up to maintain voter registration, urging the New York State Board of Elections not to include Kennedy’s name on the ballot for the November presidential election.
In court documents, Kennedy stated that the address listed was a single room at a friend’s house in Katonah, about 40 miles away from Manhattan. Due to the demanding schedule of the presidential campaign, he had only slept in the room once since moving in.
Kennedy’s lawyers pointed out in the petition that removing Kennedy from the ballot would irreversibly deprive his supporters in New York of their right to vote for him.
“The address on Kennedy’s petition is irrelevant to voters and the state of New York,” the lawyers wrote in the petition, also stating that no voters were misled by it.
By default, this emergency request has been referred to Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the U.S. Supreme Court, who handles emergency appeals from New York.
Sotomayor has requested New York Attorney General Letitia James and other relevant parties in the case to provide a written response by Wednesday, September 25th.
In August of this year, Kennedy suspended his campaign activities, announced his support for Republican presidential candidate and former President Trump, and urged his supporters to back Trump.
Kennedy has been working to remove his name from the ballots in seven key swing states while keeping his name on the ballots in some other states to help Trump win the election.
Currently, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, South Dakota, and North Carolina have removed his name from the ballots. Wisconsin and Michigan have rejected his requests to remove his name from the ballots.