US Supreme Court blocks Robert Kennedy Jr's appeal to remove his name from ballots—but why?
Robert Kennedy Jr
The United States Supreme Court on Tuesday (Oct 29) turned down Robert F. Kennedy Jr's emergency appeal to remove his name from presidential ballots in Wisconsin and Michigan.
Why did Kennedy Jr. want his name removed?
RFK Jr's decision to appeal for the removal of his name from the ballot came after his endorsement of Donald Trump and the withdrawal of his independent bid from the 2024 US election race.
Kennedy argued that staying on the ballot violated his First Amendment rights by misleading voters and wrongly implying that he still wanted to be the US president.
He has sought to withdraw from ballots in seven key swing states since endorsing Trump. Michigan and Wisconsin are the last two where he remains listed. In Michigan, he initially won an appeal but ultimately could not withdraw as the candidate for the Natural Law Party, which wanted him to stay on the ballot.
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This comes after a leaked video showed Kennedy telling supporters that "President Trump has promised me … control of the public health agencies, which are HHS and its sub-agencies, CDC, FDA, NIH and a few others, and then also the USDA, which is … key to making America healthy".
The supposed call between Trump and Kennedy, as perCNN, took place on Monday.
But why did the court reject his appeal?
With early voting already in progress, state officials in Michigan and Wisconsin said it would be impossible to take Kennedy's name off the ballot now.
In Michigan, more than 1.5 million absentee ballots have been returned, and 264,000 voters have cast early votes, state attorneys told the court. Wisconsin has over 858,000 absentee ballots submitted.
While, as is common practice, the justices did not explain their reasoning behind the decision, one justice, Neil Gorsuch publicly dissented from the Michigan decision.
The Justice pointed to lower court opinions suggesting that Kennedy's timing for the withdrawal request was not unreasonable.
After the ruling, Kennedy accused the conservative-majority court of acting politically to support Democrats in the states to "undermine election integrity".
In a post on X, he urged voters in both states to back Trump instead of him, claiming his presence could split the Republican vote.
"It is a purely political move in the hope that folks who would have otherwise voted for Trump will throw away their vote by voting for me instead," he said.
"Don't let them undermine this election. Don’t be fooled. I am off the ballot in every other state I have sought to get off of other than Michigan and Wisconsin. So, if you are in Michigan or Wisconsin, please make sure to vote for Donald Trump – DO NOT VOTE FOR ME. Together we will Make America Healthy Again!," he added.
(With inputs from agencies)
