Robert F. Kennedy Junior is continuing his bid to remove his name from the Michigan presidential ballot. He has asked the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to hear the case in an effort to remove him as the nominee of the Natural Law Party of Michigan.
Kennedy is trying to reverse a decision by the Michigan Secretary of State that he missed the state’s deadline for third party candidates to withdraw. The Secretary of State says if he is allowed to drop out of the race in Michigan, the Natural Law Party would be without a candidate after Kennedy sought and accepted the party’s convention nomination.
Kennedy argues that no longer matters since he no longer wants to be a candidate after suspending his campaign and endorsing former President Donald Trump. Kennedy’s legal filing with the appeals court says requiring his name to appear on the ballot violates his rights.
“Here, it is clear that the act of withdrawing conveys the message that a candidate is no longer willing (or able) to hold a particular office if elected,” says his brief. “Any reasonable person understood Mr. Kennedy’s August 23, 2024 speech to convey his decision to suspend his presidential campaign. By recertifying the ballot to include Mr. Kennedy’s name as a presidential candidate, the Secretary has compelled his speech in violation of the First Amendment.”
Kennedy appealed after losing before a U.S. district court judge in Detroit, who ruled he does not get to relitigate the case in federal courts after the Michigan Supreme Court decided his name will remain on the statewide ballot.
Local clerks have already ordered ballots printed with Kennedy’s name on them as one of the presidential candidates. The clerks face a deadline to get ballots in the mail to overseas and military voters.
But, while Kennedy tries to pull his name from ballots in Michigan and other battleground states, he has also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to order his name on to the ballot in the state of New York. Election officials removed Kennedy for using an invalid residential address on his nominating petitions.
