Wisconsin Supreme Court Bypasses Lower Courts To Hear RFK Jr. Ballot Case
Court will issue a decision 'as expeditiously as possible'
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at Legends Event Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Photo by Gage Skidmore. (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
The Wisconsin Supreme Court will decide whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will remain on the November ballot, bypassing the court of appeals.
The liberal-leaning court indicated it likely won’t hear oral arguments before a decision is rendered, the court announced Friday.
“The court will endeavor to issue a written decision as expeditiously as possible,” the order reads.
On Thursday, the Wisconsin Election Commission asked the Supreme Court to take up the case directly. The commission argued the case needs a fast, final resolution, since local clerks are now sending out absentee ballots with Kennedy’s name.
By 7:30 a.m. Thursday, more than 340,000 ballots had already been sent out, according to the WEC filing.
Justice Rebecca Bradley issued the dissenting opinion. Chief Justice Annette Ziegler joined the dissent.
“The members of the majority do not follow their ostensible ‘rule’ regarding so-called ‘premature’ petitions with any consistency,” Bradley wrote.
“Process matters,” Bradley continued. “The members of the majority sometimes enforce a rule against ‘premature petitions’ but sometimes they don’t, without disclosing any standards by which they will choose whether to apply it.”
Kennedy’s attorney, Joseph Bungi, said he plans to file a response at 4 p.m. Friday and said he looks forward to a speedy decision by the Supreme Court.
Kennedy suspended his campaign in August and endorsed Donald Trump. He has been trying to get his name off ballots in key battleground states like Wisconsin.
A Dane County judge ruled Monday that Kennedy must stay on the ballot. That ruling upheld an earlier decision by the elections commission, which said state law mandates that approved candidates can’t get off the ballot unless they die.
A Waukesha-based state appeals court agreed Wednesday to hear a lawsuit seeking to remove his name. The Supreme Court’s order Friday effectively took over that case.
Kennedy has proposed local clerks cover his name on the ballot with stickers.
In its filing, the Wisconsin Elections Commission said that solution would ignore state law and force clerks to spend “tens of thousands of hours” creating and affixing stickers, causing a “logistical nightmare,” that could threaten the accuracy of the election results.
Wisconsin Supreme Court bypassing lower court to hear RFK Jr. ballot case was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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Of course Rebecca Bradley dissented. She speaks of the importance of process. However, process is only important when conservatives are in the minority. So too, she seems unaware that this is an presidential election related case. And the election on November 4th is a little over 5 weeks away. In this case urgency is more important than process.