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Kennedy wanted to get off the ballot in Wisconsin and Michigan
after dropping his independent bid and endorsing Republican
Donald Trump in the tight contest. He argued that keeping him on
violated his First Amendment rights by wrongly implying he still
wanted to be elected president.
Michigan and Wisconsin said removing his name now, with early
voting underway days before the election, would be impossible.
More than 1.5 million people in Michigan have already returned
absentee ballots, and another 264,000 have voted early, state
attorneys wrote in court documents. In Wisconsin, over 858,000
people have returned absentee ballots.
The justices did not detail their reason in an order rejecting
the emergency appeal, as is typical. One justice, Neil Gorsuch,
publicly dissented in the Michigan case.
The presence of independent and third-party candidates on the
ballot in swing states could be a key factor in the close
presidential race. The high court previously rejected Kennedy’s
separate effort to stay on the ballot in New York, a state where
his presence is unlikely to make a difference in the race
between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.
Kennedy has been working to get off the ballot in the seven key
swing states since endorsing Trump. Wisconsin and Michigan are
the last two where his name is expected to appear.
In Michigan, he notched an appeals court win but courts
ultimately found he couldn't withdraw as the candidate of the
Natural Law Party, which had wanted him to stay on.
In his dissent, Gorsuch pointed to lower court judges who wrote
that the timing of Kennedy's original request to be removed
wasn't so unreasonable that it should be denied.
In Wisconsin, courts rejected Kennedy's argument that major
parties unfairly get more time to switch nominees. Judges there
found candidates who miss deadlines to change nomination papers
must remain on the ballot unless they die, and a plan to cover
Kennedy's name with stickers was unworkable.
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