The Oregon Supreme Court ruled Thursday that former New York Times columnist Nick Kristof is not eligible to run for governor.

The court posted a ruling on its website around 8 a.m. that said Kristof does not meet the residency requirement in the Oregon Constitution. It says candidates for government must be a resident of the state for three years before the election they could win.

The court upheld a January ruling by Secretary of State Shemia Fagan that Kristof did not meet Oregon’s requirement that he have lived in the state since November 2019. The election is November 8. Kristof has scheduled a press conference for 10 a.m. Fagan has scheduled a press conference for 11 a.m.

The constitution and state law do not define the term “resident” and the issue has never been fully litigated. Kristof filed for the Democratic nomination on Dec. 20. The Oregon Secretary of State’s Office asked for information about his residency the next day. Kristof’s attorneys replied that he was raised in Oregon, considers the state his home and only moved out for education and employment. Kristof said he maintains property in the state that he and his family repeatedly return to and live on.

Fagan then ruled Kristof ineligible to run, arguing that he had lived in New York and voted there as recently as 2020. Kristof appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, arguing, among other things, that the Marion County Circuit Court ruled in 1974 that state Rep. Bill Wyatt was eligible to run for his northern Oregon Coast seat despite registering and voting in Eugene while attending the University of Oregon earlier. Then-Oregon Secretary of State Clay Myers did not appeal the ruling.

The Oregon Department of Justice, representing Fagan, responded with a filing on Jan. 20 that argued the “text, context and history” of the constitutional requirement indicated that “resident within” means “a person must have been domiciled in Oregon during that period” and that a person “can only have one domicile at any given time.”

“Although (Kristof) lived in Oregon beginning at age 12 and until he left for college, and he continues to have ties here, his conduct shows that he was domiciled in New York — not Oregon — until at least December 2020,” the state’s brief continued.

Kristof responded that “resident” is more a matter of intent that is not limited by technicalities like driver’s licenses and voter registrations.

“The Oregon Constitution has room enough to accommodate the lives of real people like Kristof. He has been a resident of the state for many years, his ties to Oregon are deep and abiding, and voters — not elections officials — should decide his suitability to be governor,” Kristof’s lawyers said in the Jan. 26 filing.

The court decision has both short- and long-term implications. Kristof has raised nearly $2.75 million in cash and in-kind contributions, far more than any other Democrat in the race, including State Treasurer Tobias Read and former Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek, who resigned her North Portland seat to run for governor.

The secretary of state’s office has said Kristof can keep the contributions and spend them as he chooses. Kotek and Read are now the clear Democratic frontrunners in the 2022 race, however.

Kristof’s position had been supported by former Oregon secretaries of state who have recommended a broad reading of the term resident. His nomination is opposed by a group of politically active Oregon women of color who accuse Kristof of using his white male privilege to qualify for the ballot. Several of them have endorsed Kotek.