WASHINGTON (WXYZ) — The US Supreme Court has denied an injunction request by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that would have ordered Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to remove him from the general election ballot.
According to an order on the Supreme Court's website, the Court denied the request, with only Justice Neil Gorsuch dissenting. The order quotes this as Gorsuch's dissent:
Respectfully, I dissent for substantially the reasons given by Judges Thapar, Readler, and McKeague. See Kennedy v. Benson, case No. 24-1799, (CA6, Oct. 16, 2024), pp. 13—19 (Thapar, J., dissenting from denial of rehearing en banc); id., at 20—32 (Readler, J., dissenting from denial of rehearing en banc); id., at 35—37 (McKeague, J., statement respecting denial of rehearing and denial of rehearing en banc).
The denial comes a day after Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson filed her response to Kennedy's request for an injunction. In her filing, Benson wrote that removing Kennedy was not possible as thousands of ballots had already been cast in the state.
READ THE FULL FILING BELOW:
Kennedy Resp to App for Inj A by WXYZ-TV Channel 7 Detroit on Scribd
Kennedy filed a request Friday for an injunction to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who presides over the Sixth Circuit of which Michigan is a part, Kennedy says in not removing his name, Benson is violating his rights. The case has made it's way through both the Michigan state courts and the federal district court, as well as the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
READ THE FULL FILING BELOW:
Application for Emergency Injunction Pending Appeal by WXYZ-TV Channel 7 Detroit on Scribd
U.S. District Court Judge Denise Hood denied a preliminary injunction request in September, one day after she heard arguments from Kennedy's lawyers and lawyers for the Michigan Secretary of State's Office.
Kennedy is the presidential nominee in Michigan for the Natural Law Party. However, in late August, he suspended his campaign and threw his support behind former President Donald Trump. Since then, he's been fighting to get his name off the ballot in several states.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a post on X in August that Michigan law says candidates who accept a minor party's nomination shall not be permitted to withdraw.
In the 18-page ruling, Hood disagreed with several claims made by Kennedy and his lawyers for reasons that he should be off the ballot.
"Plaintiff had the opportunity to bring his additional constitutional claims at the time that he filed his initial complaint with the Court of Claims. Plaintiff now pleads before this Court seeking a second bite at the apple, to which he is not entitled," Hood wrote in the ruling.
Kennedy sued Benson on Aug. 30, but in the hearing, lawyers for Benson said that as of Sept. 17, 90% of the total ballots had been printed and it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to reprint them in Wayne County alone.
Michigan election law requires absentee ballots to be issued starting Sept. 26 for voters in the state.
7 News Detroit is reaching out to Benson's office and will update this story once they comment.