The Supreme Court rejected the Nevada Green Party’s request for an emergency order putting its candidate, Jill Stein, on the presidential ballot in the key swing state.
Without any noted dissents, the justices on Friday declined to disturb a ruling from Nevada’s high court earlier this month barring Green Party candidates from appearing.
Third-party ballot access has played an outsize role in this year’s presidential contest, with legal challenges against the Green Party’s bid to go before voters and former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s attempt to remove his name in battleground states.
The Nevada Green Party (NGP) asserted its candidates were “wrongfully ripped from the ballot” and demanded a rare, emergency intervention from the Supreme Court to wipe the lower ruling.
Democratic state officials cautioned against doing so, warning that it would spark voter confusion, since ballots have already started going out in the mail. A federal deadline to mail ballots to overseas voters is approaching later this week, the state noted.
“An order from this Court obligating Nevada to add NGP candidates to the ballot now would create an insurmountable problem: it would undermine the integrity of Nevada’s election,” the state wrote.
The Green Party’s lead attorney before the Supreme Court was Jay Sekulow, who represented former President Trump in his first impeachment trial.
“Respondents’ solution to the September 6 clock expiring is the Applicant is out of air and should have just given up,” Sekulow wrote in court filings.
“NGP’s solution is to seek justice and vindication of its rights. While an admittedly extraordinary application to this Court, grave and irreparable constitutional violations are at stake,” he continued.
The Nevada State Democratic Party brought the lawsuit, noting the Green Party used the wrong ballot petition form that has looser verification requirements when collecting signatures.
Nevada’s high court rejected the Green Party’s defense that a state employee told it to use the wrong version and ruled 5-2 that its candidates could not appear on the ballot.
The state’s Democratic party urged the Supreme Court to stay out of the case, saying the emergency request was “extraordinary — indeed, seemingly unprecedented” and would “inject chaos and uncertainty” into November’s election.