The United States Supreme Court declined Tuesday to remove former Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the ballot in the key battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan.
Kennedy announced in August that he would be suspending his campaign and endorsing former President Donald Trump (R).
The former candidate’s petitions seeking injunctions that would have allowed his name to be removed from the ballot in these states were denied by the Court Tuesday.
While there were no public dissents regarding the Court’s decision for Wisconsin, Justice Neil Gorsuch did dissent from the ruling that pertained to Michigan. As is common with these types of orders, the Justices provided no explanation for their decision.
Both of these states are expected to play a major role in the upcoming presidential election. According to YouGov’s win probabilities, there were less than five percentage points between former President Donald Trump (R) and Vice President Kamala Harris (D) in both states as of late September.
In asking the Supreme Court to remove his name from the ballot, Kennedy argued that forcing him to remain on the ballot would be a violation of his First Amendment rights as it would compel him to speak by forcing him to suggest to voters that he is still a candidate for the presidency.
State election officials had previously refused Kennedy’s request to be removed from the ballot as early and absentee voting was already underway at the time of his request.
In Maine, Kennedy narrowly met the Secretary of State’s deadline to withdraw his name from the ballot.
This move was expected to primarily benefit former President Trump, as Kennedy’s candidacy was largely regarded as taking votes away from the Republican nominee, whom the Independent had recently endorsed.
Although Kennedy had not submitted his paperwork to the state as of 4:30pm on the day of the deadline, he managed to do so before the final cutoff at 5pm.
[RELATED: In Boon to Trump, RFK Jr. Narrowly Meets Deadline to Withdraw from Maine’s Ballot]
The controversies out of Michigan and Wisconsin are not the only election-related cases in which the Supreme Court has been involved recently.
Almost immediately after deciding Kennedy’s two cases, the Supreme Court ruled to allow Virginia officials to remove about 1,600 self-identified noncitizens from the voter rolls ahead of next Tuesday’s election.
[RELATED: SCOTUS Allows Virginia to Remove Self-Identified Noncitizens from Voter Rolls Ahead of Election]
The 6-3 decision was also issued by the Justices without any explanation of their reasoning. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the majority, indicating that they would have voted to allow the suspected noncitizens to remain on the rolls.
Because Virginia offers same-day voter registration, any eligible voters who may have been improperly removed from the rolls as a result of this effort will be able to rectify the situation on election day at their polling place and cast their ballots.
