Supreme Court Shoots Down RFK Jr.'s Bid To Get On New York Ballot

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s bid to grab a spot on New York State's presidential ballot.

The court released its decision in a one-line, unsigned order Friday on the emergency docket. There was no explanation for its decision and no dissent listed, Politico noted.

RFK Jr. asked the high court to reinstate his name on the ballot despite suspending his campaign last month and endorsing Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

Kennedy's campaign had collected more than 100,000 signatures to win him a spot on the ballot.

But Democrats challenged in court, alleging that Kennedy did not live in Katonah, N.Y., as he told election officials, but in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Cheryl Hines.

A son of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, he claimed he rented a room from a childhood friend in Katonah last year, but others said he only stayed there once overnight, Politico reported.

Kennedy, who has been named in stories about a decapitated whale and leaving a bear carcass in New York's Central Park, appealed to the Supreme Court after lower courts removed his name from the ballots.

"I don't think I have a comment on it. We're looking at our options," he told Politico when reached on the phone after the ruling.

In court filings, his lawyers argued that New York's ballot requirements for third-party candidates violated the rights of voters who signed the petition to put him on the ballot.

"Those voters have a constitutional right to have Kennedy placed on the ballot — and to vote for him, whether he is campaigning for their vote or not," they wrote in the emergency application filed last week, Politico reported.

His name has also been removed from ballots in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina, the report said.