Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected an emergency request on Thursday to order Michigan to include a constitutional amendment that includes proof-of-citizenship requirements for voting on the state’s 2026 ballot.
In a newly released order, Kavanaugh denied Americans for Citizen Voting’s emergency application to instruct Wolverine State election officials to place their initiative on the November ballot. The proposal would require Michigan voters to verify their American citizenship when registering to vote and mandate photo ID for in-person voting.
According to The Detroit News, the state’s Board of Canvassers deadlocked in a 2-2 vote along party lines last month “in determining whether the group had collected enough valid signatures for the issue to move forward.” Per the outlet, “The group needed 446,198 signatures to advance the measure and said it collected more than 700,000. But a review of a 1,000-signature sample found that Americans for Citizen Voting fell a handful of signatures short of the necessary threshold.”
“Much of the debate at the Aug. 24 canvassing board meeting focused on five signatures that were deemed invalid. Supporters of the ballot proposal turned in affidavits from the people behind the signatures, saying they had signed the petition and were qualified to do so, but they were turned in after the deadline for challenges,” the report reads. “The group has also complained that its signatures were submitted March 4, but the Bureau of Elections did not issue its staff report until Aug. 17, more than five months later.”
[READ: Trump’s Declassified Docs Detail Massive Michigan Voter Registration Fraud]
As noted in their emergency application, Americans for Citizen Voting initially sought relief at the Michigan Supreme Court but ultimately brought its filing to SCOTUS because the former “constructively denied the request … by failing to act timely.” The group noted how the Michigan Supreme Court “has done nothing — not even to request a response from Respondents” to its Aug. 27 filing, despite state law requiring the fall ballot to be certified “no later than” Sept. 4.
The Wolverine State asked in its response brief that the Supreme Court reject the group’s application.
As is custom with such orders, Kavanaugh — who oversees applications from the 6th Circuit (which includes Michigan) — did not provide a reason for his denial of Americans for Citizen Voting’s emergency request. Given its rejection, the application will not be referred to the full court for consideration.
As The Federalist’s Matt Kittle previously reported, state Democrats have regularly opposed efforts to ensure only U.S. citizens are voting in Michigan elections — despite such policies enjoying wide support across ideological lines. The Wolverine State is notorious for its reported lack of transparency in elections.
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