RFK Jr to appeal Michigan ruling keeping his name on ballot after he withdrew from race

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the former independent presidential candidate who joined forces with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, is planning to appeal a decision by Michigan’s US District Court to keep his name on the Nov. 5 presidential ballot, The Detroit News reported Friday. Kennedy informed Judge Denise Page Hood with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan that would be making an appeal of her decision to the Sixth Circuit. 

Hood ruled against Kennedy’s request to be removed from the Michigan presidential ballot because it would "interrupt the election process because he no longer wants to participate."



"Reprinting ballots at this late hour would undoubtedly halt the voting process in Michigan and cause a burden to election officials," Hood wrote in her decision, observing that 90 percent of the state ballots were printed.

The state sent out military and overseas ballots on Saturday for about 16,000 absentee voters. When asked if it was too late to challenge Hood’s decision with ballots already being distributed, Kennedy lawyer Brandon Debus acknowledged the existence of “practical problems” but emphasized the importance of the decision from a purely legal perspective, per the outlet.

Kennedy and his legal team have maintained that insisting Kennedy’s name remain on the ballot is a contravention of the US Constitution and an example of “compelled speech” that serves "no purpose other than to undermine the integrity of the election for president of the United States."

Kennedy’s attempts at having his name removed from ballots in key battleground states has been a mixture of success and failure. The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled Sept. 9 that Kennedy’s name must be removed from state presidential ballots. The 4-3 decision upheld an earlier appeals court ruling that also agreed that Kennedy’s name be stricken from the form.

That decision, emboldening his coalition with Trump, was tempered by the setback in Michigan and another one in Wisconsin. As an independent candidate, Kennedy had fought to get his name on as many presidential ballots as possible and promised at a news conference to have his name removed from the presidential ballots in 10 battleground states so that voters would not be confused and understand that Kennedy was now part of Trump’s campaign.