The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to let Robert F. Kennedy Jr. withdraw his name from ballots in Michigan and Wisconsin, battleground states where votes for his now suspended campaign could cut into support for former President Donald Trump.
Kennedy, who left the presidential race in August and endorsed Trump, urged the Supreme Court in an emergency appeal to force the states to yank his name from the ballots. But state election officials countered that early and absentee voting in the states was already well underway. In other words, they said, it was too late.
The Supreme Court handed down its decision without further explanation, which is common on its emergency docket. Justice Neil Gorsuch, a member of the court’s conservative wing, dissented in the Michigan case.
In an unusual twist, Kennedy had asked the high court weeks earlier to help him push his way onto the ballot in New York. After suspending his campaign, Kennedy initially suggested voters could continue to support him in less competitive states. The Supreme Court also rejected that request.
At the center of Kennedy’s case in Michigan and Wisconsin was an argument that the states were violating his First Amendment rights by compelling his speech by forcing him to suggest to voters that he is still a candidate.
Michigan told the Supreme Court this week that over 1.5 million voters had already returned absentee ballots with Kennedy’s name listed as an option on them and that another 263,000 residents had voted early.
“This election is not merely ‘imminent,’ it is already underway, and voters are already voting,” Michigan officials had told the Supreme Court.