Judge to hear arguments over RFK Jr.’s ballot eligibility

A New Jersey lawyer's push to boot Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the November ballot is "not only undemocratic, it is unconstitutional,” a lawyer for Kennedy says. (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

The debate over Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s eligibility to be on New Jersey’s ballot in November is set to come to a courtroom on Friday. 

A lawyer for Kennedy, an independent presidential candidate, is urging the judge overseeing the case to throw out the challenge to his candidacy. He argues in a July 18 motion to dismiss the case that the attorney seeking to boot Kennedy from the ballot failed to present proper evidence.

Kennedy attorney Donald Burke said a finding that Kennedy is ineligible to run as a third-party choice for voters in November would “limit the ballot to major political party candidates and impose burdens on independent presidential candidates and associational rights of voters.” 

Salmon’s effort is “not only undemocratic, it is unconstitutional,” Burke said in a statement.

The Kennedy camp’s filing comes on the heels of Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way arguing in a separate filing that Salmon challenged Kennedy’s eligibility in the wrong venue. Attorneys for Way say Salmon’s challenge should have been brought to Way’s office first (she is also the secretary of state).

Scott Salmon, the attorney leading the fight to bar Kennedy from the ballot, said neither party is arguing the merits of his case — that Kennedy shouldn’t be eligible to run based on the state’s “sore-loser law.” That law prevents candidates who seek the nomination of a political party from getting on the ballot as a third-party choice the same year. 

“I think that lack of response is kind of an admission that they know if they can’t get this thing thrown out for a procedural reason, they know he’s going to be thrown off the ballot,” Salmon said about Kennedy’s filing.

Burke’s July 18 motion argues that “sore-loser laws” contribute to political polarization.

“Laws that prohibit third party candidates from appearing on the ballot in a general election are major political party tools to squelch democracy and free speech and work against the public’s interests and, instead, advance the interests of the major political parties and their candidates,” it says.

Salmon filed the lawsuit in Superior Court in Mercer County in June, seeking to bar Kennedy from the ballot as an independent candidate for president because Kennedy tried and failed to win the Democratic Party nomination. Salmon previously worked to keep rapper Ye from appearing on New Jersey’s ballots in 2020; the rapper’s campaign withdrew from the race after Salmon challenged the validity of some of his petition signatures. 

Kennedy launched his campaign in April 2023 as a Democrat running against Biden. He raised hundreds of thousands of dollars before announcing in October he’d run as an independent instead. Kennedy’s name did not appear on the ballot in New Jersey’s June 4 Democratic primary. 

Burke said in his July 18 filing that Salmon has no evidence Kennedy submitted a petition to seek the Democratic Party nomination. 

In a statement, Burke said the lawsuit is a “non-starter” because Salmon is not a candidate for president. Way’s filing also says only one of Kennedy’s rivals for president is able to challenge his petitions in Superior Court.

Salmon noted when filing the lawsuit that Kennedy received hundreds of write-in votes for the Democratic primary. Kennedy’s team said that shouldn’t disqualify him. 

“If accepted, this would severely burden the constitutionally protected rights of independent presidential candidates and voters and these burdens would outweigh the state’s interest in voter education, equal treatment, and political stability,” Burke wrote.

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