The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s request to be removed from the presidential ballot in Michigan and Wisconsin.

RFK Jr. has attempted to remove his name from the ballot in critical battleground states since he dropped out of the race and endorsed President Trump.

WATCH:

USA TODAY reports:

Kennedy, who endorsed Trump after ending his own campaign in August, missed the deadline for withdrawing from the ballot in those states. But he argued the deadlines are unconstitutional because they are different than the rules for candidates running on the Democratic or Republican ticket.

Lower courts rejected that argument and also said there wasn’t enough time to change the ballots. Voting is already underway.

“The absurdity of this proposal is evident on its face,” Wisconsin Attorney General Joshua Kaul argued about Kennedy’s suggestion that his name be covered over with stickers. “Today, it is not possible to affix tiny stickers to the ballots remaining with clerks, and hundreds of thousands of ballots have been sent to voters, with many already returned.”

Likewise, in Michigan, more than 1.5 million absentee ballots have been mailed in. Even if time remained to reprint and distribute new ballots, vote counting machines have already been programmed to handle the existing ballots and can’t now be reprogrammed, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel told the Supreme Court.

From The Hill:

In two brief orders, the Supreme Court rejected Kennedy’s separate emergency requests, which asserted forcibly keeping his name on the ballot compelled his speech in violation of the First Amendment.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, publicly dissented in the Michigan decision and sided with Kennedy. He did not do so for the Wisconsin case.

“Moreover, such compelled speech harms every citizen in Michigan. The Secretary, by listing Mr. Kennedy on the ballot, is misrepresenting to voters that Mr. Kennedy is qualified and willing to serve the public if elected,” Kennedy’s attorneys wrote in his Michigan application.

“Such a representation is not only incorrect, but it is also prejudicial to voters who reasonably expect that the ballot contain accurate information,” the application continued.

The Supreme Court’s ruling comes after the justices similarly denied efforts to restore Kennedy’s name to New York’s ballot and Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s name to Nevada’s ballot.

 

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