Independent presidential candidate Shiva Ayyadurai has been handed his fourth straight loss in his effort to make the ballot in New Jersey, with the state Supreme Court tersely dismissing Ayyadurai’s motion for emergent relief.
The case against Ayyadurai is a simple one: he was born in India to non-American parents, and was naturalized as an American citizen when he was 19. That entitles him to nearly every right afforded to any other citizen, but the U.S. Constitution explicitly requires that the office of president be held by a “natural-born citizen,” which Ayyadurai isn’t.
Ayyadurai’s presidential candidacy was challenged by the New Jersey Democratic State Committee, and after a brief hearing, an administrative law judge determined that Ayyadurai was, indeed, not eligible for the presidential ballot. Secretary of State Tahesha Way, who has final say over ballot access in New Jersey, concurred with the judge’s opinion and disqualified Ayyadurai.
Ayyadurai quickly filed for an expedited appeal with the New Jersey Superior Court’s appellate division, but he was denied. He then moved even further up the chain and insisted that the New Jersey Supreme Court step in, saying that his rights had been violated.
“Debasing my qualifications on being President, which at this time is putting the ‘cart before the horse,’ violates the NJ Civil Rights Act, the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” Ayyadurai wrote. “I did NOT give allegiance to America, forgoing my Indian citizenship, to be treated as as a Second Class citizen. Independent of the vile and invidious discrimination of those parties’ defective rulings, a STAY must be issued to ensure the NJ Slate of Presidential Electors, under the slogan ‘Dr.SHIVA,’ are NOT removed from the ballot.”
But the Supreme Court disagreed, writing in a brief order today that Ayyadurai “failed to prove an entitlement to emergent relief.”
Ayyadurai, a former New Jersey resident who graduated from Livingston High School, has made several unsuccessful runs for office in the past, losing races for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts in 2018 and 2020. He’s promoted a variety of conspiracy theories during his campaigns related to Covid and vaccines, and has also taken stridently anti-Israel positions, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “Satan.”
While Ayyadurai isn’t going to appear on New Jersey’s ballots this fall, those looking for someone to vote for other than Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump will still have plenty of options; independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is on the ballot after surviving a challenge under the state’s Sore Loser Law, and the Libertarian, Green, Socialist Workers, Socialism and Liberation, and Socialist Equality Parties have put forward presidential candidates as well.