Breaking News: Team Kennedy, American Values 2024 and Jeffrey Rose File Supreme Court Writ of Injunction

By Leah Watson, The Kennedy Beacon

Last month, the New York State Supreme Court blocked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the New York ballot, ruling that he listed a false New York address on his ballot access petitions. The case holds major significance, not just with respect to this year’s election but also for all independent candidates going forward. 

Earlier this week, on September 17, Team Kennedy, American Values 2024 (“AV24”), and Jeffrey Rose, the class representative of all voters that signed the ballot access petitions, lost on appeal in the New York Second Circuit Court of Appeals. However, the legal battle will not end there. 

On Friday, September 20, Team Kennedy, AV24, and Rose filed a Writ of Injunction with the Supreme Court of the United States to get Kennedy on the ballot in New York. This case, Team Kennedy v. Berger, is only the second of its kind, in 30 years, filed with the Supreme Court for a ballot access emergency order.

However, Team Kennedy v. Berger extends beyond the issue of Kennedy’s ballot access in New York. This case is about the voters who are at risk of losing their voting rights and the 130,000 signatures of support that are at risk of being discarded. 

“If this election cycle becomes the norm, all minor parties and independents will have to gear up for the long haul of ballot access battles in the courts, in elections to come,” said AV24’s Chief Legal Council, Deirdre Goldfarb. “In particular, Democratic lawfare against Kennedy and the other independent and minor parties has been the most egregious in memory.  This is the new plight of minor parties and independents – but once in the fight it must be continued until the end and the end in our jurisprudence is SCOTUS.”

(Members of Team Kennedy outside of the NY Second Circuit Court of Appeals)

On September 17, approximately 65 people crowded a small Manhattan courtroom on the 17th floor of the New York Second Circuit Court of Appeals, to listen to the oral arguments. Some members of the audience were law students and wore suits; others were Kennedy supporters and wore Team Kennedy hats and pins. At 10 a.m., the crowded room grew quiet as people halted their hushed conversations and waited in eager anticipation to hear the arguments.

Three judges, Gerald Lynch, Beth Robinson, and Sarah Merriam, sat at their elevated wooden desks at the front of the room and heard the arguments from the attorneys on both sides of the case. Each side had five minutes, however, the attorneys went well beyond the set limit. In total, the arguments lasted more than 30 minutes.

Jed Rubenfeld, the attorney advocating to keep Kennedy on the ballot in New York, delivered his argument first, emphatically stating that removing Kennedy’s name from the New York ballot, based on mere technicalities,  is unconstitutional.

Over 100,000 voters signed petitions to get Kennedy on the ballot. By taking him off the ballot, the plaintiffs argue, their voting rights will be violated. Rubenfeld also addressed the fact that if Kennedy’s name is stricken from the New York ballot, New York voters will only have two presidential candidates on the ballot – given that no other third-party candidate has met the requirements to qualify for the ballot in NY.

This case “is not about Mr. Kennedy anymore,” said Rubenfeld, “It’s about the voters…this motion is about the rights of voters.”