In the latest Supreme Court litigation ahead of the midterm elections, a Michigan group wants the high court’s help in putting a measure on the November ballot to require proof of citizenship to vote in the state.
Americans for Citizen Voting — Michigan filed an emergency application to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who fields such requests from the Michigan region. The Trump appointee can decide the application on his own or refer it to his colleagues for a full decision.
Alongside Fred Smith, a Michigan voter who supports the measure, the citizen voting group wants a Supreme Court order by Thursday to ensure that it is placed on the November ballot.
In their application, they said the state’s ballots are finalized “on or around” Friday and that Michigan’s Democratic secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, “refuses to specify the ‘drop dead date’ by which ballots must be finalized.” Their lead counsel is John Bursch, who was the state’s solicitor general during a Republican administration and has Supreme Court experience representing conservative causes, including through the Alliance Defending Freedom.
The Michigan measure is not currently slated to appear on the ballot, because state officials deadlocked over whether it was supported by enough signatures. The group and Smith sought relief from Michigan’s Supreme Court, but they said the state court had effectively denied their request by failing to act on it. Hence, they said, they are turning to Washington now.
In their application to Kavanaugh, they said that they satisfied the requirements for getting the measure on the ballot and that the rejection denied them due process and equal protection.
It’s the latest litigation quickly developing on the high court docket, following a separate urgent request from Republicans seeking relief on campaign advertising rates by Friday. So the high court could act in both that case and the Michigan ballot case by the end of the week.
Separately, on Monday the Supreme Court majority voted to let President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom construction proceed. And the justices are likely to soon be asked to weigh in on the legality of Trump’s desired mail-in ballot restrictions for the midterms.
The justices have been deciding these emergency requests while on their summer recess, ahead of their return to the bench for their next term, in early October.
In the Michigan ballot litigation, Kavanaugh requested a response from state officials by noon Wednesday. That leaves open the possibility of the applicants winning their requested relief by Thursday. But it remains to be seen what Kavanaugh and his colleagues do.
Whatever happens with this litigation, noncitizens are already barred from voting in state and federal elections. “There is no evidence to support claims that large numbers of noncitizens have voted in past elections or are currently registering to vote,” according to the Michigan Department of State, which notes that “the name of everyone who registers or votes in an election is a public record — it would be very easy to see if noncitizens were registering or voting in large numbers.”
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