The U.S. Supreme Court has decided that it will not interject itself in the battle over whether or not Green Party candidate Jill Stein's name ought to appear on Nevada ballots. 

The justices made their ruling on Friday, USA Today reports.

You may be asking what difference it makes whether Stein's name is or is not included on the state's ballots.

The answer is a bigger difference than you may realize. If it is a closely-contested race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in Nevada, then a third-party candidate, such as Stein, could make all the difference.

Here's what is going on:

There has been a big fight in Nevada about whether or not Stein is eligible to appear as a third-party candidate on the state's presidential ballots. Stein, obviously, wants to appear on the ballots, but the Democrats do not want this.

Accordingly, the Democrats took the matter to the courts, arguing that Stein was not eligible to appear because she allegedly failed to follow the ballot access rules of third-party presidential candidates.

The Democrats managed to get a win in the Nevada state courts, including at the Nevada Supreme Court. This is when the Green Party, on behalf of Stein, filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.

Interestingly, Stein, in this case, was represented by Attorney Jay Sekulow, a pro-Trump conservative. He argued that the Nevada courts "wrongfully ripped [Stein] from the ballot," taking away the people of Nevada's right to vote for Stein.

Now, the Supreme Court has turned down the emergency appeal, meaning that Stein will not be appearing on Nevada ballots.

There is more to the story

Third-party candidates, as mentioned earlier, could play a big role in close elections, and the signs would suggest that the election is going to be really close in Nevada.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal recently reported:

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are neck and neck in the swing state of Nevada with less than two months to go until the November election, new polling shows.

That may be true, but it is also true that, in Nevada, ballots are already being printed and mailed out without Stein's name on them.

What's more is that polling has also suggested, quite clearly, that Stein would be more likely to take voters away from Harris than from Trump, which probably explains why Democrats were fighting to keep her off ballots, while conservatives were fighting to keep her on.

We'll have to see how this all plays out, but, at the moment, this is looking like a win for Harris and the Democrats.