Lawsuits to keep RFK Jr. off ballots

Extracted Attributes

• Election

  2024 United States presidential election

• Type of Event

  Legal challenges/Lawsuits

• Status (as of August 2024)

  Judge ruled against RFK Jr.'s bid in New York; RFK Jr. is on the ballot in 15 states but faces similar lawsuits in Pennsylvania

• Secondary Goal (by RFK Jr.)

  Remove Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s name from state ballots after endorsing Donald Trump

• States Involved (by RFK Jr.)

  North Carolina

• Primary Goal (against RFK Jr.)

  Prevent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from appearing on state ballots for the 2024 U.S. presidential election

• Key Legal Arguments (by RFK Jr.)

  State 'irreparably harmed' him and interfered with his right to free speech by denying his request to be removed from the ballot (North Carolina)

• States Involved (against RFK Jr.)

  Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, Delaware, Georgia

• Key Legal Arguments (against RFK Jr.)

  Violation of state ballot access laws (e.g., Nevada), 'sore loser law' (e.g., New Jersey), false residency claims (e.g., New York), wrongly or incompletely filled out petitions (e.g., Georgia)

Timeline

• The Nevada Democratic Party coordinated a lawsuit to keep Robert F. Kennedy Jr. off the ballot in Nevada. Election lawyer Scott Salmon also sought to keep him off the New Jersey ballot. (Source: web_search_results)

  2024-06-27

• Clear Choice Action, a Democrat-aligned super PAC, filed a lawsuit to keep Robert F. Kennedy Jr. off the ballot in Pennsylvania and also challenged his petitions in New York and Illinois. (Source: web_search_results)

  2024-08-09

• A judge ruled against Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s bid to appear on the New York ballot, citing false residency claims. (Source: web_search_results)

  2024-08-14

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed Republican nominee Donald Trump, announcing plans to co-chair his transition team. (Source: summary, related_documents, web_search_results)

  2024-08

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sued North Carolina's election board to remove his name from the state's ballot, stating he wanted to avoid a Democratic win in key races. (Source: web_search_results)

  2024-08-23

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to face similar lawsuits in Pennsylvania, and the Democratic National Committee is backing challenges in Nevada, Delaware, and Georgia, with hearings scheduled in Georgia. (Source: web_search_results)

  2024-08

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. (born January 17, 1954), also known by his initials RFK Jr., is an American politician, environmental lawyer, author, conspiracy theorist, and anti-vaccine activist serving as the 26th United States secretary of health and human services since 2025. A member of the Kennedy family, he is a son of senator and former U.S. attorney general Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy, and a nephew of President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy began his career as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan. In the mid-1980s, he joined two nonprofits focused on environmental protection: Riverkeeper and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). In 1986, he became an adjunct professor of environmental law at Pace University School of Law, and in 1987 he founded Pace's Environmental Litigation Clinic. In 1999, Kennedy founded the nonprofit environmental group Waterkeeper Alliance. He first ran as a Democrat and later started an independent campaign in the 2024 United States presidential election, before withdrawing from the race and endorsing Republican nominee Donald Trump. Since 2005, Kennedy has promoted vaccine misinformation and public-health conspiracy theories, including the chemtrail conspiracy theory, HIV/AIDS denialism, and the scientifically disproved claim of a causal link between vaccines and autism. He has drawn criticism for fueling vaccine hesitancy amid a social climate that gave rise to the deadly measles outbreaks in Samoa and Tonga. Kennedy is the founder and former chairman of Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine advocacy group and proponent of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. He has written books including The Riverkeepers (1997), Crimes Against Nature (2004), The Real Anthony Fauci (2021), and A Letter to Liberals (2022).

Web Search Results

• Democrats and their allies sue to keep RFK Jr. off the ballot ...

  In Nevada, a key battleground state narrowly won by President Biden in 2020, the Nevada Democratic Party helped coordinate a lawsuit filed Thursday to keep Kennedy off the ballot. The court filing argues that Kennedy's affiliation with multiple minor parties in other states violates Nevada's ballot access laws for independent candidates. [...] Watch CBS News # Democrats and their allies sue to keep RFK Jr. off the ballot in several states Updated on: June 27, 2024 / 9:17 AM EDT / CBS News As independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ramps up efforts to secure ballot access in all 50 states, he faces stiff resistance from Democratic political opponents attempting to block his November election bid with multiple lawsuits. [...] The latest legal challenge against Kennedy comes from election lawyer Scott Salmon, a Democrat not affiliated with any outside group, who wants to keep Kennedy off the New Jersey ballot under the state's "sore loser law," which prohibits candidates from mounting an independent run after a failed bid for a major party nomination. The statute says that among those banned would be candidates who have been "a member of a political party at any time after the immediately preceding primary election

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hit with ballot access lawsuit in ...

  Watch CBS News # Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hit with ballot access lawsuit in Pennsylvania amid other challenges in New York, Illinois August 9, 2024 / 7:15 PM EDT / CBS News Clear Choice Action, a Democrat-aligned super PAC aiming to hinder third-party presidential candidates, filed a lawsuit Thursday to keep Robert F. Kennedy Jr. off the ballot in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. [...] Kennedy is also facing challenges from the same super PAC in New York and Illinois. In New York, the PAC claims that Kennedy's state nominating petition falsely listed a residence in New York City's affluent northern suburbs, while he has in fact lived in the Los Angeles area since 2014. Kennedy testified in court Tuesday to dispute the lawsuit. In Illinois, the PAC filed an objection against his nominating petition. The matter is scheduled to be reviewed by the Illinois State Board of [...] Kennedy's campaign is determined to secure ballot access in all 50 states, and RFK Jr. has consistently stated he's staying in the race to offer voters another option in November.

• RFK Jr sues to remove name from North Carolina ballot

  The lawsuit, filed in North Carolina’s Wake County Superior Court, alleges the state has “irreparably harmed” Mr Kennedy and interfered with his right to free speech by denying his request to be removed from the ballot. Mr Kennedy’s lawsuit stated that with ballot deadlines looming, he had “no choice but to turn to this Court for immediate relief”. [...] # RFK Jr sues to remove name from North Carolina ballot Getty Images Former Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gives remarks at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel on August 23, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. Robert F Kennedy Jr has sued North Carolina’s election board to get his name off the state’s ballot ahead of November's US presidential election, just months after he fought to have his name included in several states. [...] Mr Kennedy filed the lawsuit on Friday after the North Carolina Election Board denied his request to remove his name as a third-party candidate. The former independent candidate suspended his campaign in August and endorsed the Republican nominee, former president Donald Trump. Since then, he has fought to remove his name from ballots in several battleground states, saying he wants to avoid a Democratic win in those key races.

• Judge rules against RFK Jr.'s bid to appear on New York ...

  Robert F. Kennedy Jr. A Democratic-aligned group, Clear Choice Action, sued Kennedy over the New York address he claimed as his residence on ballot access petition forms. Kennedy resides in California with his wife, actor Cheryl Hines, but in testimony, he said the couple had always intended to move back to New York. [...] "The fact that Kennedy considers himself to be a 'New Yorker', has fond memories of the years he lived in the Town of Bedford and longs to return there someday, is utterly irrelevant to the issue of whether he resided in the spare bedroom of the 84 Croton Lake Road address during May of 2024 when he circulated and filed the nominating 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 New York lawsuit, said in a statement that "today’s ruling makes clear that Mr. Kennedy lied about his residency and provided a false address on his filing papers and candidate petitions in New York, intentionally misleading election officials and betraying voters’ trust." The Democratic National Committee said after the ruling that Kennedy was a "deeply troubled, reckless, and dangerous man."

• What to know about the ruling that bounced RFK Jr. from the New ...

  “The question is whether or not in other states where they have similar criteria (as New York), it could be used to disqualify RFK Jr. from the ballot,” Gaddie said. “It may not happen everywhere, but it will happen somewhere else.” Speaking to reporters after court in Albany last week, Kennedy acknowledged that a loss in New York could lead to lawsuits in other states. Clear Choice Action said Kennedy has listed the same New York address on nominating petitions in 17 other states. [...] The Democratic National Committee is backing challenges to Kennedy’s petitions in Nevada, Delaware and Georgia, according to a spokesperson. The committee is backing a separate lawsuit in New York. [...] Hearings will begin Monday in Georgia on challenges to ballot petitions filed by Kennedy and other-third party and independent candidates. Among other things, Democrats allege that Kennedy’s petitions are invalid because they are wrongly or incompletely filled out. The Kennedy campaign disputes those claims.