Michigan Supreme Court allows Trump to appear on state’s 2024 primary ballot
Donald Trump’s name is set to appear on Michigan’s primary ballot after the state Supreme Court declined Wednesday to hear a challenge to his candidacy.
The decision not to hear the case comes a week after the Colorado Supreme Court determined Trump facilitated the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and is barred from running under the Constitution. Trump plans to appeal that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which could determine for all states whether Trump can run again.
The Michigan decision provides Trump with a new victory as he tries to get himself restored to the ballot in Colorado and prevent himself from getting knocked off the ballot in other states.
Section 3 of the 14th
Amendment of the Constitution bars from office those who engaged in insurrection after swearing an oath to uphold the nation’s founding document. The amendment was adopted three years after the end of the Civil War and the section on insurrectionists was meant to keep former Confederates out of office.
Trump’s opponents have argued the provision prevents Trump from running because of his actions leading up to and during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as Congress met to certify Joe
Biden’s victory over Trump. They have filed lawsuits around the country to try to keep him off the ballot.
In Michigan, a trial judge and appeals court said Trump could remain on the ballot there. The Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would not hear an appeal, allowing the lower court ruling to stand.
The high court in Colorado went in the other direction, finding in a 4-3 ruling last week that Trump engaged in insurrection and is ineligible to appear on the ballot in that state. It temporarily suspended its ruling to give Trump time to seek review by the U.S. Supreme Court. If Trump appeals — as he has said he will — the Colorado Supreme Court will keep its stay in place.
Michigan and Colorado hold their primaries along with more than a dozen other states on March 5, which is also known as Super Tuesday.
Trump praised the Michigan court’s decision not to get involved in the case, writing on social media that the challenges to his candidacy are a “pathetic gambit to rig the Election.”
Mark Brewer, an attorney for the voters who filed the Michigan lawsuit, said challenges to Trump’s candidacy would continue. The Michigan rulings have focused on Trump’s ability to run in the Republican primary, and Brewer said voters may argue against Trump’s eligibility to run for office during the general election campaign.
“Trump led a rebellion and insurrection against the Constitution when he tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election and he is disqualified from ever seeking or holding public office again,” Brewer said in a written statement.
The Michigan case was filed with the help of the liberal group Free Speech For People. The group lost a similar challenge before the Minnesota Supreme Court and has a case pending before the Oregon Supreme Court.