The Supreme Court rules that RFK Jr. will appear on the ballots in Michigan and Wisconsin despite the campaign being suspended

CNN
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The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to let Robert F. Kennedy Jr. withdrawing his name from the ballots in Michigan and Wisconsin, battleground states where votes for his now-suspended campaign could cut into support for former President Donald Trump.

Kennedy, who dropped out of the August presidential race and backed Trump, urged the Supreme Court in an emergency appeal to force states to remove his name from the ballot. But state election officials countered that early and absentee voting in the states was already well under way. In other words, they said, it was too late.

The Supreme Court issued its decision without further explanation, which is common on its emergency docket. Justice Neil Gorsuch, a member of the court’s conservative wing, dissented in the Michigan case.

In an unusual twist, Kennedy had weeks earlier asked the high court to help him push himself onto the New York ballot. After suspending his campaign, Kennedy initially suggested that voters could continue to support him in less competitive states. The Supreme Court also rejected that request.

At the center of Kennedy’s case in Michigan and Wisconsin was an argument that the states violated his First Amendment rights by forcing his speech by forcing him to suggest to voters that he is still a candidate.

Michigan told the Supreme Court this week that more than 1.5 million voters had already returned absentee ballots with Kennedy’s name listed as an option on them and that another 263,000 residents had voted early.

“This election is not merely ‘imminent,’ it is already underway and voters are already voting,” Michigan officials had told the Supreme Court.