The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled on Monday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name must be removed from the state’s presidential ballots. The 4-3 decision upholds a prior ruling by an appeals court on Friday that also required Kennedy’s name to be taken off the ballot, as reported by NBC News.
This ruling benefits the former independent candidate, who has endorsed Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race and does not wish to compete against him in key battleground states like North Carolina. Kennedy’s initial request to have his name removed was denied by a lower court, but with this Supreme Court decision, all presidential ballots in North Carolina will now need to be reprinted.
“We acknowledge that expediting the process of printing new ballots will require considerable time and effort by our election officials and significant expense to the State,” wrote Justice Trey Allen in the majority opinion on Monday. “But that is a price the North Carolina Constitution expects us to incur to protect voters’ fundamental right to vote their conscience and have that vote count.” Justices Anita Earls, Richard Dietz, and Allison Riggs dissented.
While this decision is a win for Kennedy and his alliance with Trump, Kennedy’s name will still appear on the presidential ballot in Michigan, where the state’s Supreme Court ruled against his request for removal. Initially, Kennedy sought to appear on as many presidential ballots as possible as an independent candidate, but now his name could give the impression that he is running against Trump in pivotal states.
At a news conference, Kennedy vowed to continue efforts to remove his name from the presidential ballots in 10 battleground states.
The North Carolina ruling was partly based on the state constitution’s Free Elections Clause, which upholds both the right to vote and the right to cast an informed vote. The majority of justices agreed that if Kennedy’s name “appears on the ballot, it could disenfranchise countless voters who mistakenly believe that [he] remains a candidate for office.”
