by Thérèse Boudreaux
Former Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has lost the fight to remove his name from Wisconsin’s ballot after the state Supreme Court ruled against him.
In its decision, the Court found that Dane County Circuit Judge Stephen E. Ehlke exercised proper discretion when denying Kennedy’s request for a temporary injunction and keeping the former candidate on the ballot.
“[Kennedy’s] claims of harm are based on his alleged constitutional violations. Since he does not provide us a sufficient basis to assess those claims, we cannot determine whether the circuit court erred in finding that he will not suffer irreparable harm in these circumstances,” the Court said.
The decision wraps up a month-long legal battle between Kennedy and the WEC, whose members voted 5-1 to keep his name on the state’s ballot after he dropped out of the race in August. Following the WEC’s decision, Kennedy filed a lawsuit, which the Dane County Circuit Court ruled against on Sept. 16.
Before Kennedy could appeal the court’s decision, the WEC petitioned Wisconsin’s highest court to permanently resolve the issue as soon as possible, since clerks had already sent out hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots with Kennedy’s name, according to WEC counts.
Although the court’s two conservative justices objected to the procedural violation, the court agreed to bypass the appeals process and immediately take the case.
Conservative Justices Rebecca Grassl Bradley and Annette Kingsland Ziegler ultimately concurred with the court’s ruling, but again objected to the lack of procedural process.
“The ramifications in this case are immense,” Grassl Bradley wrote. “Voters may cast their ballots in favor of a candidate who withdrew his candidacy, thereby losing their right to cast a meaningful vote. Ballots listing a non-candidate mislead voters and may skew a presidential election. In this case, the damage to voter participation in electoral democracy is real.”
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Thérèse Boudreaux is an apprentice reporter covering Michigan and Wisconsin for The Center Square, under the mentorship of Midwest Regional Editor J.D. Davidson. Her work focuses on election-related news in these two states. Previously, she interned at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Thérèse graduated with a major in politics from Hillsdale College in May of 2024, where she produced award-winning radio journalism.
Photo “Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.” by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
