(Source: MIRS.news, Published 09/09/2024) Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s name cannot be removed from the Nov. 5 ballot despite withdrawing from the presidential race, the Michigan Supreme Court held Monday.

The high court held Kennedy, who was nominated by the Natural Law Party (NLP) in Michigan, was not entitled to the "extraordinary relief" of having the court remove his name.

Justice Elizabeth Welch noted in a concurring statement that Kennedy waited "more than four months" after his nomination before asking to have his name removed, and the NLP had "no opportunity to field a candidate and faced considerable prejudice."

" . . . Plaintiff failed to demonstrate that he had a clear right to mandamus relief," Welch wrote.

Republican-nominated Justices Brian Zahra and David Viviano dissented, calling Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's argument that state statute bars Kennedy's removal "meritless."

"The court should not be exercising judicial power to sanction conduct outside this legislative framework," the dissent reads. " … After this Court's intervention, there is no identifiable source of law that permits the Secretary of State's decision to deny Kennedy's request to withdraw from the ballot … 

"By requiring Kennedy's name to appear on the general election ballot, the Secretary of State is improperly and needlessly denying the electorate a choice between persons who are actual candidates willing to serve if elected," the dissent noted. "We can only hope that the Secretary's misguided action — now sanctioned with the imprimatur of this Court — will not have national implications."

The order did not provide a breakdown of how each justice voted.

In a new filing this morning, Kennedy's legal team accused Benson's office of attempting to have "voters throw away their votes on a withdrawn candidate."

Kennedy, who sought and received the NLP's presidential nomination, decided Aug. 23 to withdraw and endorse former president Donald J. Trump.

"That she is fighting to actively add Mr. Kennedy's name to the ballots to have Michigan voters throw away their votes on a withdrawn candidate, should not just be rejected, but strongly condemned as improper and beyond the ministerial, impartial role Defendant should play in elections," according to the court filing from Troy attorney Eric Esshaki and New York law firm Siri & Glimstad.

Kennedy moved to have his name taken off Michigan's ballot, but the Bureau of Elections twice rejected the request, leading to his lawsuit in the Court of Claims.

On Sept. 3, Court of Claims Judge Christopher Yates upheld Benson's decision, but a three-judge Michigan Court of Appeals reversed that ruling two days later.

The Attorney General's office appealed on Friday, seeking to keep Kennedy on the ballot as well as a stay.