(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will remain on the Michigan ballot following a legal battle led by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and a ruling by the state’s Supreme Court.
On Monday, the court ruled RFK Jr. could not be removed from the ballot, questionably concluding that he was not entitled to “extraordinary relief” to compel Benson to remove his name, according to The Detroit News.
The court noted that Kennedy did not cite any law requiring the secretary of state’s “duty to withdraw a candidate’s name from the ballot” and did not demonstrate “his clear legal right to performance of this specific duty.”
The Michigan Supreme Court, consisting of seven justices—four of whom were Democrat-nominated—issued the ruling. However, Republican-appointed justices David Viviano and Brian Zahra rebuked the majority’s opinion, calling out its negative consequences.
“We can only hope that the secretary’s misguided action — now sanctioned with the imprimatur of this Court — will not have national implications,” Viviano and Zahra wrote, explaining that Benson had no legal authority to deny KFK Jr.’s request that he be removed from the November ballot.
Viviano and Zahra criticized the ruling as “confounding, imprecise and counterintuitive,” arguing that Benson had no legal authority to deny RFK Jr.’s request to remove his name from the November ballot.
By forcing the former third-party candidate to remain on the ballot, Benson was “improperly and needlessly denying the electorate a choice between persons who are actual candidates willing to serve if elected.”
The legal battle began after RFK Jr. suspended his campaign and urged his supporters in swing states, including Michigan, to back President Donald Trump.
Democrats grew alarmed by this endorsement, rightfully fearing that Kennedy’s small, yet influential, base could sway the 2024 election in Trump’s favor
Critics allege the effort to keep RFK Jr. on the ballot is a calculated attempt to split the anti-Democratic Party vote, with Benson, a radical leftist Democrat, leading the charge in Michigan.
