The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s attempt to get off the ballot in Wisconsin and Michigan, after the justices had previously rejected his bid to get on the ballot in New York.
Justice Neil Gorsuch dissented from the Michigan denial, with no justices issuing any dissent from the Wisconsin denial.
State courts in both battleground states had rejected Kennedy’s appeals, with judges taking stock of the inconsistent approach from the former independent presidential candidate, who suspended his campaign in August and announced his support for Republican Donald Trump’s campaign.
In his Wisconsin application to the justices, Kennedy argued that his constitutional rights were being violated by keeping him on the ballot. “It’s Robert F. Kennedy’s absolute right to endorse Donald Trump for President,” his lawyers wrote. In opposing his application, lawyers for the Wisconsin Election Commission told the justices that the extraordinary relief sought by Kennedy just a week ahead of the election “would require the county and municipal clerks of Wisconsin to handcraft and apply millions of stickers to Wisconsin ballots in order to cover his name — at least those ballots that have not already gone to voters and been returned.”
Likewise in his Michigan application, Kennedy’s lawyers argued that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson “has compelled his [Kennedy’s] speech in violation of the First Amendment.” Likewise opposing Kennedy’s bid, Michigan’s lawyers noted that over 1.5 million voters have already returned ballots in the state, and another 263,634 have voted early, and that “voters likely do not consider their votes for Kennedy to be frivolous or deserving of less protection than votes cast for a major party candidate.”
In his brief dissent from the Michigan denial, Gorsuch cited opinions by Republican-appointed federal appeals court judges who expressed concerns about ruling against Kennedy in this case. Both Wisconsin and Michigan lawyers pointed out Kennedy’s attempt to get on the New York ballot, with Michigan’s lawyers writing that his “claims of compelled speech, reputational harm, and voter confusion as a result of appearing on Michigan’s ballot are at odds with his attempts to be on the ballot in New York and numerous other states. Kennedy does not acknowledge or address his efforts in other states or explain how he can be irreparably injured by the very thing he asked to be granted him in New York.” Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in Donald Trump’s legal cases.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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