Kavanaugh declines to hear application on Michigan citizens-only voting ballot measure

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected an emergency application Thursday regarding a Michigan voting rights group's petition for their citizens-only voting proposal to be added to the November ballot.

The Americans for Citizen Voting-Michigan was seeking to appeal a deadlocked decision by the Michigan Board of State Canvassers that left the proposal off the November general election ballot due to a lack of valid petition signatures.

Kavanaugh did not give an opinion in the ruling or recommend it to the full court for consideration.

The appeal comes after the group collected more than 700,000 signatures—well above the 446,198 required number to appear on the ballot, but claimed that in a "random" sampling of 1,000 signatures, 17 of them did not meet the standards.

The group also accused Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson of sitting on the signatures for 5 1/2 months before even looking at it, giving the group only a small window to prove enough signatures were legitimate for the proposal.

Kavanaugh's denial of interfering in the state issue means that federal courts will not weigh in before the Sept. 4 deadline. The November ballot is expected to be officially locked in on Friday at the Board of Canvassers meeting.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.