WASHINGTON (AP) — Third-party presidential candidate Cornel West lost a Thursday supreme court candidate to be on the presidential ballot in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Justice Samuel Alito denied his emergency appeal in a brief order. Alito handles appeals originating in Pennsylvania.

West, a liberal academic who currently serves as a professor of Christian philosophy and practice at Union Theological Seminary in New York, would likely get far more votes from Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris than from former Republican President Donald Trump. West’s lawyers in the case have deep Republican ties.

The refusal comes after a rejection by U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan, who expressed sympathy for West’s claim earlier this month, but said it was too late to reprint the ballots and retest the voting machines without increasing the risk of error.

Ranjan cited federal precedent that courts should not disrupt impending elections without a strong reason to do so.