On April 15, Jim Walden, the New York city mayoral candidate who wants “Independence” as his ballot label, filed this reply brief in Walder v Kosinski, 25-764.

In 2022 the New York legislature banned the words “Independence” and “independent” from ever being part of a qualified party’s name. Election officials therefore won’t even permit an independent candidate to use either of those words in his or her ballot label. New York is one of the 25 states that lets an independent candidate choose a party label that is not too long and not obscene. But this interpretation of the 2022 law means that a New York independent candidate can’t even have the word “independent” as a ballot label, which is absurd.