The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Monday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s name will remain on the presidential election ballot, dealing a blow to his efforts to support former President Trump in a key battleground state.
After ending his campaign as an independent presidential candidate and endorsing Trump, Kennedy began campaigning to remove his name from the ballot in states he thought might steal votes from Trump, suing Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to do so.
Benson rejected a request to remove his name from the original ballot, citing a state law that says candidates nominated by minor parties “cannot withdraw.” Kenney was nominated by the state's Natural Law Party.
The appeals court on Friday overturned a lower court decision that had allowed Benson to challenge the lawsuit, a victory for Kennedy. Monday's ruling overturned a state appeals court decision.
The Supreme Court argued that Kennedy had “not pointed to any source of law” to support his claim that he had a right to withdraw his name.
“Accordingly, because plaintiffs have not shown that they are entitled to this extraordinary relief, we dismiss plaintiffs' claims,” the ruling read.
“This clearly has nothing to do with voting or election integrity,” Kennedy's lawyer, Aaron Siri, said in a written statement to The Associated Press. Reported“The idea is to do just the opposite – to get uninformed Michigan voters to waste their vote on a withdrawn candidate.”
