Justice Brett Kavanaugh has rejected the emergency bid to force Michigan’s proposed citizens-only voting amendment onto the November ballot.
The decision appeared Thursday afternoon as a single line on the U.S. Supreme Court’s emergency docket.
There was no written opinion. Kavanaugh did not refer the application to the full Court.
For supporters who raced to Washington after Michigan officials refused to certify the proposal, that is a crushing result—and it arrived just one day before the state board was expected to finalize the ballot.
🚨 Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied an emergency request seeking to force Michigan to place a proposed constitutional amendment requiring proof of citizenship to vote on the November ballot. The application argued the measure was wrongly denied certification.
— SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) September 3, 2026
More Than 700,000 Signatures Led To A Three-Signature Fight
Americans for Citizen Voting-Michigan filed its emergency application on August 31. The group asked Kavanaugh, who handles emergency matters from the Sixth Circuit, to order Michigan officials to put the constitutional amendment before voters on November 3.
The filing said organizers submitted 709,841 signatures in March—far above the 446,198 needed for a constitutional amendment. But Michigan used a 1,000-signature sample to estimate validity, and the proposal came up three valid signatures short in that sample.
Supporters later produced affidavits from voters whose signatures had been rejected. The Board of State Canvassers would not count the affidavits after a deadline dispute, and the board deadlocked 2-2 on certification.
The applicants accused state officials of spending five and a half months reviewing the petitions, then leaving almost no time to challenge the result before ballots were locked. They argued that rejecting the affidavits and delaying the process violated due process and equal protection.
Kavanaugh initially gave the case an unmistakable jolt. On September 1, he ordered Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the Board of State Canvassers and Elections Director Jonathan Brater to respond by noon the next day.
🚨BREAKING: DEVELOPMENT ON MICHIGAN CITIZENS ONLY VOTING🚨
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh has ordered Jocelyn Benson, the State Board of Canvassers, and other Michigan officials to respond by NOON TOMORROW to an emergency Supreme Court application seeking to put the… https://t.co/wu6nRk0MVl
— Michigan House Republicans (@MI_Republicans) September 1, 2026
Michigan Told The Court To Stay Out
Michigan Advance reported that state officials urged the Supreme Court not to become the first court to decide the challengers’ federal claims while the dispute was still before Michigan’s own courts.
The state argued that Michigan’s initiative process is a right created by state law, not a federal First Amendment right. Officials also said the petition review followed the normal sequence: candidate petitions first, then proposed statutes and referendums, and finally constitutional amendments.
Michigan’s lawyers further accused the campaign of trying to preserve every favorable determination while reopening only the rejected signatures that could change the outcome. They asked the federal court to leave the state administrative fight to state judges.
The campaign replied later Wednesday, insisting that it was challenging the board’s actions rather than Michigan law itself. Hours later, Kavanaugh ended the federal emergency push.
US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has denied an emergency injunction request by Americans for Citizens Voting – Michigan, which is trying to get its proposal on the ballot after canvassers deadlocked on certification
— Jonathan Oosting (@jonathanoosting) September 3, 2026
What The Amendment Would Have Done
The official petition text published by Michigan’s secretary of state goes well beyond adding a short declaration that only citizens may vote.
It would require citizenship verification during voter registration, direct the state to review existing voter records using government data, and require officials to remove people who fail to verify eligibility. It would also establish new identification rules for in-person and absentee voting.
The proposal included a state-funded hardship program for people who could not afford the documents needed to verify citizenship or obtain photo identification. It also provided a limited post-election window for certain voters to cure missing identification or citizenship verification.
Opponents argued those provisions could burden eligible voters. Supporters said they were basic safeguards—and that Michigan voters, not a divided canvassing board, deserved the final say.
The Supreme Court docket for application 26A275 is the Court’s official record of the emergency matter. It shows the application arriving on August 31, followed by Justice Kavanaugh’s September 1 direction requiring Michigan officials to respond by noon on September 2.
The docket then records the state officials’ response and the applicants’ reply. Its final substantive entry, dated September 3, says only that the application was denied by Justice Kavanaugh.
No separate opinion or order PDF is attached to that denial, and the docket gives no explanation for the result. It also records no referral of the application to the full Court.
That means the official record establishes the procedural outcome, but it does not disclose Kavanaugh’s reasoning or announce a broader Supreme Court holding on the merits of Michigan’s petition dispute. More than 700,000 submitted signatures brought the fight to the courthouse door; the emergency request ended with a one-line denial.
Read the full Supreme Court order here: official docket entry for application 26A275.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
