Judge Rules Against RFK Jr.’s Bid to Appear in New York Elections This Fall

A judge ruled Monday against independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s effort to appear in New York’s general election this fall.

New York Supreme Court Justice Christina Ryba invalidated Kennedy’s nomination petition and instructed the Board of Elections not to place Kennedy’s name on the official ballot. The Supreme Court is a trial court in the state of New York.

The Kennedy campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. During last week’s trial, he said he planned to appeal the decision.

A Democratic-aligned group, Clear Choice Action, sued Kennedy over the New York address he claimed was his residence on ballot access petition forms. Kennedy lives in California with his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, but in a statement he said the couple always intended to return to New York.

“The fact that Kennedy considers himself a ‘New Yorker,’ has fond memories of the years he lived in the town of Bedford, and wishes to return there some day, is entirely irrelevant to the question of whether he resided in the guest room of the speech at 84 Croton Lake Road in May 2024 when he circulated and presented the nomination petition,” the judge’s ruling said.

According to an NBC News tracker, Kennedy is on the ballot in 15 states but faces similar lawsuits in Pennsylvania.

Clear Choice Action, the group that filed the lawsuit in New York, said in a statement that “today’s ruling makes clear that Mr. Kennedy lied about his residency and provided a false address in his filing documents and candidate petitions in New York, intentionally misleading election authorities and betraying the trust of voters.”

The Democratic National Committee said after the ruling that Kennedy was a “deeply disturbed, reckless and dangerous man.”