Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be on the ballot in Michigan, the state’s highest court ruled Monday, despite Kennedy pushing to have his name removed after he ended his independent presidential campaign and endorsed former President Donald Trump.

The state Supreme Court court said in its majority opinion that Kennedy “has not shown an entitlement to this extraordinary relief” after seeking to have his name removed from the ballot, reversing a Michigan appeals court decision to take him off the ballot Friday after an appeal from the Michigan secretary of state.

Kennedy had qualified for the battleground state’s ballot after being nominated by the Natural Law Party, a minor party with ballot access in Michigan. In a concurring opinion, Michigan Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Welch cited Natural Law Party chair Doug Dern’s opposition to Kennedy’s withdrawal four months after his party nominated Kennedy as part of her basis for concluding Kennedy did not have a “clear right” to be removed from the state’s ballot.

The decision undercuts Kennedy’s hope to push his supporters toward Trump after he endorsed the former president last month. Kennedy has been attempting to remove his name from battleground states as part of a strategy to maximize the Republican nominee’s support in places that could determine the outcome of the election. Last week, he told his supporters to back Trump “no matter what state you live in.”

While Kennedy’s support was in single digits when he dropped out of the presidential race last month, those voters could prove consequential to the outcome of closely contested states like Michigan. In a CNN poll released last week of likely voters in Michigan, Kennedy received 4% support despite having suspended his campaign. In that same poll, Vice President Kamala Harris led in Michigan with 48% over Trump’s 43%.

Kennedy has seen some success in his effort to be removed from the ballot in battleground states, with the North Carolina Supreme Court ruling in his favor Monday.

The Michigan ruling settles a hard-fought legal effort by Kennedy to remove his name from the state ballot, after initially losing a Michigan Court of Claims decision. He then appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals, which ruled in his favor to remove him from the ballot Friday before that decision was overturned on Monday.

A spokesperson for Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson praised the state Supreme Court’s quick ruling in a statement, saying, “Clerks can now move forward with the ballot printing process to ensure absentee ballots will be delivered to voters by the federal deadlines.”

Absentee voting in Michigan is scheduled to start September 26, although ballots for overseas and military voters are required to go out by September 21.

This story has been updated with additional details.

Ethan Cohen contributed to this report.

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LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Monday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will remain on the state’s November presidential ballot, ending Kennedy’s efforts to withdraw his name to help support former President Donald Trump.

Kennedy suspended his third-party presidential campaign and endorsed Trump in August. He sued Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, on Aug. 30 in an attempt to remove his name from the ballot so as not to siphon votes away from Trump, who won Michigan by about 10,000 votes in 2016.

Monday’s decision reverses an intermediate-level Court of Appeals ruling made Friday. It ensures that Kennedy’s name will appear on voters’ ballots in the valuable battleground state despite his withdrawal from the race.

The court said in a brief order that Kennedy “has not shown an entitlement to this extraordinary relief, and we reverse.”

“This plainly has nothing to do with ballot or election integrity,” Kennedy’s attorney, Aaron Siri, said in a written statement. “The aim is precisely the opposite — to have unwitting Michigan voters throw away their votes on a withdrawn candidate.”

Angela Benander, spokesperson for Benson’s office, said the department is grateful for the high court’s “swift response.”

“Clerks can now move forward with the ballot printing process to ensure absentee ballots will be delivered to voters by the federal deadlines,” Benander said in a written statement.

Kennedy is attempting to withdraw his name from states where the presidential race will be close in November. He had scored a legal victory in North Carolina and suffered a setback in Wisconsin Friday.

Justices nominated by Democrats currently hold a 4-3 majority on the Michigan Supreme Court. The order was unsigned and two Republican-nominated justices wrote a dissenting opinion.

“We can only hope that the Secretary’s misguided action — now sanctioned with the imprimatur of this Court — will not have national implications,” the dissenting justices wrote.

Kennedy was nominated for president by the Natural Law Party in Michigan. Benson had previously cited a state law saying candidates who are nominated and accept a minor party’s nomination “shall not be permitted to withdraw.”

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Here are the Michigan State football players who helped or hurt their stock in the Spartans’ 27-24 win Saturday at Maryland.

Winners

■ WR Nick Marsh – The freshman’s fourth-quarter performance made MSU’s offense look like an entirely different beast for defenses to handle. Marsh ran through and away from defenders for a 57-yard catch to start the final period, then delivered a 77-yard, game-tying touchdown on the exact same route as the first. But he wasn’t finished, adding two more chain-moving catches in the final minute to set up the game-winning field goal, finishing with four of his eight grabs and 151 of his 194 yards receiving in the fourth. Marsh got separation all day on short and intermediate routes as well, but the downfield element he added to the passing game was most beneficial for …

■ QB Aidan Chiles – After languishing through a lackluster MSU debut against Florida Atlantic, Chiles (like the offense) looked like an entirely different beast. His connection with Marsh was clear, as the sophomore delivered a perfect strike as he absorbed a huge hit on the first long throw in the fourth quarter. On the second, with pressure again closing, Chiles launched a missile 51 yards through the air to hit Marsh in-stride over the top of two defenders. Chiles’ second TD, a 34-yard deep post pass to Jaron Glover, showed more pocket presence. Even though he threw three interceptions and now has five on the season, Chiles’ 363-yard, 24-for-39 day is exactly the type of performance the Spartans hope to get more frequently.

■ Brian Lindgren – So much of what Chiles did came off the rhythm MSU’s new offensive coordinator established in the first half, something Lindgren had mentioned in the week between games as an area he needed to do a better job on. The play-calling early was very intentional, starting with a swing pass to Montorie Foster Jr. on the first play and then throws to Glover and Marsh on the next two plays as part of an eight-play, 84-yard drive on the Spartans’ first possession. Foster’s 9-yard touchdown on the slant finished that one, and Lindgren gave Chiles plenty of chances to use all three of his top receivers and tight end Jack Velling in a variety of routes both underneath and down the field.

Losers

■ Offensive line – Coming off a first game in which they gave up a ton of pressures off the edge, the Spartans entered the Maryland game without starting right guard Kristian “Big Dooley” Phillips, who is expected to be out the rest of the season. That injury caused a ripple effect on the interior of the line, which struggled to prevent backfield penetration in the run game from every angle all afternoon. Coach Jonathan Smith said it is imperative that MSU must run the ball better moving forward after finishing with 130 yards on 30 attempts.

■ Secondary – The injuries continue to mount in the defensive backfield. Already without Dillon Tatum and Khalil Majeed entering Saturday, the Spartans watched both cornerbacks Chance Rucker and Ed Woods leave the game with injuries. One of their replacements, LSU transfer Jeremiah Hughes, also suffered an apparent upper-body injury midway through the fourth quarter but returned to the field. Prairie View A&M visiting next week gives defensive coordinator Joe Rossi an opportunity to give younger defensive backs playing time, because MSU will need the depth when it heads to Boston College and then hosts Ohio State in the following two weeks.

■ WR/KR Aziah Johnson – With Alante Brown out after suffering an upper-body injury that likely will keep him out until at least November, MSU moved Johnson into the kickoff return role. However, the redshirt freshman twice ignored his teammates’ urging to accept a fair catch and took kickoffs out of the end zone, each return going 16 yards and pinning the Spartans’ offense 9 yards back from where they would have started had Johnson taken the touchback. Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams replaced Johnson after the second one as the deep back, with Nate Carter sliding into Lynch-Adams’ spot as the upback. Johnson did play nine snaps on offense at receiver, and he could see more time if Glover’s injury is significant.

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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