Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. makes an announcement about the future of his campaign in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, on August 23, 2024.
Thomas Machowicz | Reuters
Former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will appear on the Michigan ballot in November, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday, a decision that could boost Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' national candidacy over Republican candidate and former President 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 wishes of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
The Supreme Court's majority decision on Monday was unsigned, but the wording of the order suggests that five of the seven justices who heard the case voted to keep Kennedy's name on the ballot.
Harris is ahead of Trump in the polls in Michigan, regardless of the number of candidates. But her lead over Trump is shrinking in a direct comparison.
Michigan's 15 votes in the Electoral College – the body that chooses the winners of the US presidential election – are the second highest number 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 would give Trump an advantage.
Kennedy, who was nominated by the Natural Law Party in Michigan, sued Benson after she denied his request to have his name removed.
In her decision, Benson cited Michigan state law that states that minor party candidates 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 majority decision could be for the outcome 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 removed from the ballots.
A North Carolina appeals court ruled in Kennedy's favor on Friday, ordering the state's election officials not to mail ballots bearing his name, as they had planned to do the same 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 decide Kennedy's lawsuit in Wisconsin.
In Wisconsin, Harris' poll lead over Trump shrinks if the race narrows to two candidates, according to RealClearPolling, and in North Carolina, Trump is ahead in that scenario.
Kennedy managed to withdraw his candidacy in four other swing states: Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia.
But polls show that a neck-and-neck race in Georgia and Nevada could increase Harris' chances, but not Trump's.
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