By Andrew Chung
(Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court denied on Tuesday a bid by former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has endorsed Republican Donald Trump, to be removed from the ballot in Wisconsin and Michigan for the Nov. 5 election. Kennedy has said he wants voters who would have backed him to cast ballots for Trump.
The court declined Kennedy’s emergency requests to order the Wisconsin Elections Commission and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to take him off the ballot in those states. Michigan and Wisconsin are among a handful of closely contested states expected to decide the outcome of the race between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.
Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch dissented from the decision concerning the Michigan ballot only. No other justice publicly dissented.
Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist known by his initials RFK Jr., has sought the Supreme Court’s intervention in his attempts to stay on the ballot in some states while dropping off others. In September, the Supreme Court rejected his bid to be restored to the ballot in New York.
Kennedy suspended his campaign in August and endorsed the former president’s candidacy. Kennedy has urged his supporters everywhere to back Trump and has withdrawn from the ballot in a number of Republican-leaning states.
In his legal fight, Kennedy has argued that state officials are violating the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protection against government infringement of speech by forcing him to remain on the ballot after he sought to be removed.
In Wisconsin, the elections commission refused to keep Kennedy off the ballot, noting that state law does not allow for withdrawal once a nominee has qualified for the ballot, as he had. The Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed in September with a trial court’s decision against Kennedy.
While Kennedy suggested that Wisconsin officials “cover his name with stickers” on the ballot, the commission told the Supreme Court, “The absurdity of this proposal is evident on its face.”
In Michigan, Benson rejected Kennedy’s requests to withdraw from the ballot, prompting him to sue in state court. The Michigan Supreme Court ruled against him in September.
Kennedy then sued in federal court, but the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Benson on Sept. 27. With the ballots printed, Kennedy “does not explain how to unring the bell at this juncture without great harm to voting rights and the public’s interest in fair and efficient election administration,” the 6th Circuit said in its decision.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)
