Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in right away to get his name back on the votes for president in New York.
Lower courts took the former independent candidate off the ticket because they said he falsely claimed to live in the Empire State when his Katonah, New York, address wasn’t his regular home.
RFK Jr. and his actor wife, Cheryl Hines, who is best known for her part on the TV show “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” live in Los Angeles, California. Since 2014, he has lived there.
The Second Circuit confirmed a lower court’s ruling on September 18th that the Independent candidate was not eligible to run.
In court documents, Kennedy said that he has regularly taken a room in the home of an old friend and had even stayed the night there once. The lawyers for him pointed out that the lower courts “did not find that anyone was tricked” by that information.
He told the Supreme Court that his followers in the state “have a constitutional right to have Kennedy put on the ballot — and to vote for him, regardless if he is campaigning for their vote or not.”
“It didn’t matter what address Kennedy put on his petition, neither to voters nor to New York,” his lawyers wrote in their request.
Kennedy’s campaign, “American Values 2024,” a super-PAC that backed him and his political work, made the request.
At the same time, the emergency request was sent to New York’s Chief Justice, Sonia Sotomayor, who handles emergency cases. So, she asked New York Attorney General Letitia James (D-N.Y.) and other people interested in the case to write back by Wednesday afternoon.
Kennedy has tried to get his name taken off the ballot in key swing states since he stopped running for office and backed former President Donald Trump. He has kept his name on the ballot in other states. There have been several lawsuits over the move, but the one in New York is the first one involving Kennedy that has made it to the Supreme Court.