Supreme Court Rules in Case That Could Upend Presidential Qualifications

The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) on Monday declined to hear Shiva Ayyadurai’s challenge to the “natural born” citizen clause, after his effort to run for president was blocked.
The “natural born citizen” clause in the Constitution says only someone born a U.S. citizen can become president or vice president. The rule has sparked a number of debates and legal challenges.
Ayyadurai, who was born in India, asked the nation’s High Court to review Ayyadurai v. Democratic State Committee of New Jersey and overturn the decision made by the New Jersey State Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court issued a “certiorari denied,” which means it decided not to review the lower court’s decision.
“The Supreme Court simply did not have courage to take on the case,” Ayyadurai told Newsweek via email on Monday. “The denial of a Writ of Certiorari means that.”
Ayyadurai, who is known as Dr. Shiva, had enough valid signatures to appear on the 2024 New Jersey ballot, but the New Jersey Democratic Party challenged his inclusion and the lower state courts upheld the challenge.
He appeared on the ballot in other states and received a total of nearly 28,000 votes.
“The bottom line is this: I will not be treated as a second-class citizen. I am fighting for the 25 million other U.S. Citizens who should not be treated as second-class citizens. All citizens are EQUAL,” Ayyadurai said.
Had the U.S. Supreme Court taken the case and ruled in his favor, the natural-born citizen requirement could have been altered to allow any U.S. citizen to run for president.
Ayyadurai is a U.S. citizen born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1986, a master’s degree in 1990 and a Ph.D. in 2007 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He has worked as a scientist, inventor, entrepreneur and business owner in fields related to biological systems and computer science. He has authored 10 books and served as a university lecturer at MIT. Additionally, Ayyadurai helped the U.S. Senate deploy its email management infrastructure.
He unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts in 2018 as an independent, receiving nearly 92,000 votes.
Ayyadurai’s presidential campaign launched with the message “One America, One Citizenship,” sparking conversation about the “natural-born” clause, which he argued discriminated against 25 million U.S. citizens by denying them the right to hold the nation’s top office.
Inspired by his message, Americans mobilized across nearly every state, petitioning to get Ayyadurai on the ballots. However, the New Jersey secretary of state upheld the qualification—the “natural born” clause—that his campaign highlighted as discriminatory, blocking his bid for the presidency.
In the past few months, people filed lawsuits and challenges in some states to keep Ayyadurai off the ballot. In other states, election officials removed his name. Meanwhile, several states allowed him on the ballot, either listing his name or allowing him as a write-in candidate.
“My run for President broke this notion that a Naturalized Citizen cannot run for the office,” Ayyadurai said.
According to the Supreme Court, Ayyadurai’s name appeared on the presidential election ballots in Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi and Washington.
Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane said officials would have removed Ayyadurai from Idaho’s ballots had they received a complaint in time.
“We learned about it right at the print deadline for all of the ballots,” McGrane told KBOI. “There was a scramble leading up to that and the deadline to get ballots printed.”
In Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin, election officials removed Ayyadurai name from the ballots, enforcing the “natural-born” qualification.
Ayyadurai told Newsweek that he will run again in 2028.
“My run for President broke this notion that a Naturalized Citizen cannot run for the office,” Ayyadurai said. “I will be running for President again in 2028. I am the most qualified person to be President.”
Update 11/18/24, 6:07 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from Ayyadurai.
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