Supreme Court Refuses to Remove RFK Jr. from Wisconsin and Michigan Ballots

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was running for President, but now he isn't and he does not want to be on the ballot in states where that might hurt Trump.

In two unsigned orders, the Supreme Court has denied Robert F. Kennedy Jr's applications for injunctions that would have removed his name from the ballots in Wisconsin and Michigan. RFK Jr had been running for President as an independent, and qualified to be on many ballots around the country. He subsequently dropped out of the race, however, and endorsed Donald Trump. Now he would like to be removed from the ballot in swing states where he fears he would draw votes away from Trump, but his efforts to get off of the ballot in Wisconsin and Michigan were unsuccessful.

No justice dissented from the Wisconsin order. Justice Gorsuch, however, dissented from the Michigan order. His dissent reads:

Respectfully, I dissent for substantially the reasons given by Judges Thapar, Readler, and McKeague. See Kennedy v. Benson, case No. 24-1799, (CA6, Oct. 16, 2024), pp. 13—19 (Thapar, J., dissenting from denial of rehearing en banc); id., at 20—32 (Readler, J., dissenting from denial of rehearing en banc); id., at 35—37 (McKeague, J., statement respecting denial of rehearing and denial of rehearing en banc).

His references are to the McKeague dissent in this unpublished panel opinion and the Thapar and Readler dissents from the denial of rehearing en banc.

On Sunday, Trump reportedly said he would let RFK Jr. "go wild" on food and public health issues were he to be re-elected. From one report:

"I'm going to let him go wild on health. I'm going to let him go wild on the food. I'm going to let him go wild on the medicines," Trump told supporters at Madison Square Garden.

"The only thing I don't think I'm going to let him even get near is the liquid gold that we have under our feet," he added, referring to oil.

Given some of RFK Jr's borderline-insane views on a range of public health issues, that would be quite the choice. Back in 2008, there were reports that RFK Jr could be considered as EPA Administrator in the Obama Administration, but was "too controversial."

Comments

[Martinned2]

Meanwhile, in New York he's definitely not on the ballot: https://www.loweringthebar.net/2024/10/rfk-jr-gets-nowhere-with-residency-appeal.html

[AmosArch]

RFK forgot Article 0 of the Constitution covering the most important election rules. Whenever there is a dispute over whether a candidate will remain on or off the ballot, the option that hurts a guy named Donald Trump born 200 years in the future, the most will be selected. Only after that is settled can other factors come into play.

[Sarcastr0]

A conspiracy so vast it requires passive voice.

[hobie]

History and tradition, dude. History and tradition

[EscherEnigma]

I hope that the justices looked at how he was trying to have it both ways, and decided "fuck this guy".

[Davy C]

They kind of did (at least at one of the lower levels) and I think they were wrong to do so. From the concurrence of en banc denial: "Nowhere does Plaintiff reconcile these conflicting and contradictory positions, which undermine the very basis of his First Amendment claim." But First Amendment protection does not attach only to consistent statements. If I want to tell one thing to people in New York and another thing to people in Michigan, I have the right to do so.

(I don't believe there *is* a First Amendment right to get taken off a ballot on demand. But "we think your position is contradictory" is not a valid reason to deny someone First Amendment protections if they do exist.)

[David Nieporent]

But “we think your position is contradictory” is not a valid reason to deny someone First Amendment protections if they do exist.)

It's a valid reason to deny equitable relief, though.

[Davy C]

Why? Either he has a First Amendment right or he doesn't. It shouldn't rest on the content of the "speech".

[Martinned2]

The right is in the First Amendment. The remedy may or may not be a question of equity. (And if it's an injunction, it is.)

[David Nieporent]

If you've been harmed, you are entitled to damages. But you're never automatically entitled to equitable relief. The latter requires a balancing of interests, including those of the public.

[Frank Drackman]

Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, Cums-a-lot's dead, she just doesn't know it yet.

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

Do you prefer women that cum a little?? I personally prefer women that cum a lot.

[TwelveInchPianist]

Why, what difference does it make?

[Krayt]

And is cumming a lot a bad thing?

My megayacht with 6 Bentleys on it is just too much!

[OtisAH]

piece of shit has no relevant experience in either case. TiP neither, apparently.

[Frank Drackman]

Hey Otis, I don't got no money for da' rent in yo Haid', might have it for you tomorrow, next week, I don't know, think you can let me slide?

[The Margrave of Azilia]

A candidate wants to be off the ballot in certain states and these states insist on him remaining on the ballot.

The reverse of the usual situation.

A candidate should be so lucky as to have ballot access even beyond what he wanted. You know how rare that is for third-party and independent candidates?

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

It would be nice to be able to run for president on a lark. Of course I just saw a commercial featuring the worst QB in the NFL…I could be the worst QB in the NFL and star in commercials! Life is so unfair!!

[jb]

In a lot of cases, states don't want to have to reprint ballots that are already printed. Seems pretty reasonable to me.

[Dr. Ed 2]

RFK running wild on food & drugs would not inherently be a bad thing. We've allowed a lot of things we ought not have, including allowing the same tankers to carry both orange juice and fertilizer, without being washed out first.

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

The vaccines were safe and effective.

Tell me Trump supporters, what is your favorite Trump accomplishment? His surrender to the Taliban? Operation Warp Speed and making Fauci a household name? $8 trillion in new debt for 2.5% GDP growth? Outlawing abortion in states with the biggest black populations?? Not allowing Netanyahu to decimate Hamas?? Democrats winning most elections since 2016??

[Roger S]

Peace and prosperity. Many good judges. Slowing the woke agenda.

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

So continuing the Obama economy for 3 years until Covid. And the justices McConnell appointed stabbed Trump in the back. Lia Thomas happened after Trump was president. Oh, and fentanyl deaths and violent crime spiked in 2020.

[Martinned2]

The country where so many people get gunned down every day that it doesn't even make the news anymore has "peace"???

[Roger S]

This may help Trump. There are a lot of Moslems in Michigan who voted for Biden in 2020, and who are unhappy about the Gaza War. They are not big fans of Trump either. Some of them may vote for RFKjr, instead of Harris.

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

What’s crazy is Bush/Cheney tortured and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslims…and for some reason progressives and American Muslims are more outraged by what Israel has done since 10/7!?! Such a head scratcher. 😉

[Martinned2]

Are they?

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

Yes, it’s nutz.

[Kleppe]

ICYMI, Cheney has endorsed Harris.

[Roger S]

Yes, the Democrat Party is now the war party.

[not guilty]

I remain puzzled that those who deride "the Democrat Party" continue to believe that use of non-standard English is persuasive.

Is their impulse to channel Joe McCarthy and Rush Limbaugh irresistible?

[Krychek_2]

Yes, if you want to know just how bizarre our politics are this year, Dick Cheney and Bernie Sanders are supporting the same candidate.

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

Had someone predicted that in 2004 about 2024 I would have said either the GOP nominated Ron Paul or the Democrats nominated Lieberman. If someone told me we wouldn’t be involved in any quagmires and we had lost Iraq and Afghanistan and defense spending was down and Cheney was endorsing an anti war liberal I would have said the Democrat will get 75% of the vote.

[Krychek_2]

Well, I hope the Democrats do get 75% of the vote but that’s probably overly optimistic. I'll be content if Democrats keep the White House and Senate and take back the House.

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

What’s crazy is that it is a toss up.

[Kazinski]

I have to agree with this no-decision.

Its just too close to the election. Are they going to reprint ballots over the weekend?

And I don't know the state of early voting in those two states but by some estimates half the voters nationwide have already voted (in fact thats one data point in the reported Harris campaign decision to pull their ads in NC).

[Commenter_XY]

Same here...the timing is atrocious to change the ballot.

In NJ, the lines are impressively long for early voting. I went twice, looked at the line, and said NFW. I'll probably try again today at a different early voting site. Otherwise, it is 6am Election Day at my precinct.

[Martinned2]

For the record, that's no way to do democracy.

[EscherEnigma]

IIRC, the relief he sought was to have a sticker put over his name on the ballot, similar to what they do for candidates who die after the ballots are printed. Which, frankly, is still a lot of manual labor election workers with room for mistakes and people freaking out.

I mean, do you remember "Sharpiegate" from 2020 (and then a 2022 repeat)? Republicans have primed their voters to freak out every thing. Having an election worker slap a sticker on the ballot before handing it to you would be like handing out hand grenades at a children's party.

[Randal]

Forced speech! That's insane. Is the government forcing students to speak when it prints their transcript, the message being I, Randal, being of sound mind, chose to take an Intro to Biology class but to blow it off in significant part, resulting in a suboptimal grade? That's about where Gorsuch seems to be. Someone should sue to have their bad grades stricken on First Amendment grounds lol.

[Brett Bellmore]

From a legal perspective, I actually find what they did to Stein in Ohio much more outrageous.

She did everything legally necessary to be on the ballot, got ballot access, and then somebody unrelated to her campaign pretending to be the Green party sent the SoS a letter claiming Stein's running mate had withdrawn from the race. (Some of the news accounts say it was the actual campaign that sent the letter, erroneously. I guess they didn't bother asking the Green party, either.)

And on that basis, without confirming it with the Green party, the SoS announced that votes for Stein would not be counted. And stuck by that ruling after having it pointed out that the letter wasn't actually from the Green party.

There are some interesting complications, sure, but it's absolutely unambiguous that the SoS acted on the basis of a letter from somebody with no authority to speak for the campaign.

Would the SoS do this if some random guy said that Walz was dropping out of the race? I highly doubt it.

[Drewski]

Ah, horseshoe theory. Of course Brett would be sympathetic to the left’s conspiracy theorists. Anyway it is established (in federal court filings and testimony) that the letter was hand-delivered to the Secretary by the Green Party’s co-chair. The question is whether the other chair approved the letter: The two tell contradictory stories. Brett’s little tale is just fiction inspired by real events.

[Brett Bellmore]

Of course a guy who spent most of his adult life as a third party activist is going to be sympathetic towards third parties being screwed over by the major parties, even if I hardly would want the Greens to ever win an election.

[Uhh... Greg]

One major issue in Michigan is that RFJ Jr. is only on the ballot because the Natural Law Party nominated him as their candidate. And their interests would be hurt if they do not have a candidate on the ballot. This is why they strongly opposed his withdrawal. If he previously associated himself with them, that diminishes his right to disassociate himself.
Plus, the votes are actually for electors, so many voters would take the ballot to mean that the NLP's electors would vote for somebody *like* RFK, though there might be some state intricacies I'm unaware of.

[Kleppe]

When RFK Jr announced his candidacy, Democrats sued to keep him off the ballot. After he announced he was withdrawing from the race, they sued to keep him on. I think it's time for them to remove the reference to democracy from their party name.

[Roger S]

Democrats have a senile puppet in the White House, and a secret cabal who picks their nominees. And they prosecute their political enemies. No, not really democratic.

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

Durham prosecutions

[vaadu]

RFK Jr in charge of the FDA and CDC would not be just cleaning up our food and drugs but forcing transparency on these industries.

The health problems caused by our food and drugs are on par with big tobacco.

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

Bush won in 2000 because of Big Tobacco money and Elian Gonzalez and Military Industrial Complex. Republicans truly thought China would buy Marlboros and Clinton had cut defense spending too much…dumbest election ever!!

[David Nieporent]

I'll take "things only crazy people say" for $1,000, Alex.

[Krayt]

Speaking of lousy Trump statements, neither should have happened, but…

Some Trump associate: “[3 million people] live on garbage!”

CNN font size: 10 million point

Some sitting president of the US: “[70 million people] are garbage!”

CNN: “Democrats privately exasperated with Biden after ‘garbage’ comment.”

At least Hillary only called half of ’em ‘deplorables’.

Don’t look at me. You’re all garbage!

[Zarniwoop]

Biden and Trump are both old, old guys. Both are showing signs of dementia. Both are long past their prime, and both lack the energy to be in one of the most important and powerful jobs in the world.

No one should vote for either one of them.

[JasonT20]

Some sitting president of the US: “[70 million people] are garbage!”

For what's it worth, I haven't heard a recording of that, but one article had a 'transcript' provided by the WH showing him stumbling over his words (that's certainly believable) and seeming to be trying to say that "his [Trump's] supporters..." then some err, uh, and then that speakers at the rally were talking garbage, or something like that.

It's conceivable that he was trying to say that people speaking at the rally supporting Trump were making garbage statements or using garbage rhetoric, which would be true, in my opinion. I find it plausible in either way, and would want to hear the audio before making a definitive judgement.

[Brett Bellmore]

I've listened to the recording, and there isn't any ambiguity, he did call Trump supporters "garbage".

Look, part of dementia is losing your filters. A lot of Democrats actually think that, most of them have the sense not to actually come out and say it.

I suppose the next step after 'cleaned up' transcripts, is cleaned up audio and video, and then claiming the original is a deep fake.

[JasonT20]

On the topic of election rulings, nothing from the conspirators about the Virginia voter purge, that SCOTUS allowed to go forward, huh?