Former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shall be on the ballot in Michigan in November, the Supreme Court This decision could support the national candidacy of Democrat Kamala Harris over Republican candidate Donald Trump.
The Supreme Court on Friday overturned the ruling by the state's appeals court that removed Kennedy from the state's ballot against the needs of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
The Supreme Court's majority decision on Monday was unsigned, however the wording of the order suggests that five of the seven justices who heard the case voted to maintain Kennedy's name on the ballot.
Harris, the vp, is ahead of former President Trump within the polls in Michigan, whatever the variety of candidates. But her lead over Trump is shrinking there in a direct comparison.
Michigan's 15 votes within the Electoral College – the body that chooses the winners of the US presidential election – are the second highest variety of all swing states after Pennsylvania.
When Kennedy suspended his campaign on August 23 and pledged to support Trump, he said he planned to remove his name from the ballot in swing states – including Michigan – where it might give Trump a bonus.
Kennedy, who was nominated by the Natural Law Party in Michigan, sued Secretary of State Benson after she denied his request to have his name removed.
Benson cited in her decision Michigan LawThis implies that candidates from smaller parties who accept a nomination cannot withdraw from the election.
The Michigan Supreme Court majority wrote in its Monday decision that Kennedy “neither pointed to a source of law that prescribes and defines the duty to withdraw a candidate's name from the ballot, nor did he demonstrate his clear legal right to fulfill that specific duty.”
“Therefore, [Kennedy] has not demonstrated any entitlement to this extraordinary compensation,” the court majority stated in its judgment.
Justices Brian Zahra and David Viviano, who dissented from the ruling, wrote that by leaving Kennedy on the Michigan ballot, the secretary of state “improperly and unnecessarily deprives voters of a choice between persons who are actual candidates and, if elected, are prepared to hold office.”
In their final words, the dissenting voices emphasized how significant the bulk decision could possibly be for the end result of the presidential election.
“We can only hope that the Secretary of State's misguided actions – now sanctioned with the imprimatur of this Court – will have no national repercussions,” they wrote.
Wisconsin and North Carolina also rejected Kennedy's request to remove his name from their ballots.
As in Michigan, Kennedy sued the authorities in these two other states and demanded that his name be faraway from the ballots.
A North Carolina appeals court ruled in Kennedy's favor on Friday, ordering the state's election officials to not mail ballots bearing his name, as that they had planned to do the identical day.
Paul Cox, general counsel for the North Carolina Board of Elections, wrote in a memo to county election officials on Friday that “no decision has yet been made on whether to appeal this ruling.”
A judge has yet to determine Kennedy's lawsuit in Wisconsin.
In Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin, Harris' lead over Trump within the polls is either shrinking or she is falling behind him in a head-to-head race relatively than a six-candidate race, RealClearPolling shows.
Kennedy managed to withdraw his candidacy in 4 other swing states: Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia.
But polls show that a neck-and-neck race in Georgia and Nevada could increase Harris' possibilities – but not Trump's.
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