The Michigan Supreme Court has ruled against removing former President Donald Trump from the state’s primary ballot in 2024.
Far-left legal groups have lobbied to have the former president removed from the primary ballot in more than a dozen states. Section III of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits former officials of the United States who have engaged in “insurrection” from standing for federal office, is cited in the challenges.
Despite the fact that Trump has not been criminally accused, much less convicted, of instigating an “insurgency” on January 6, 2021, the Colorado Supreme Court issued an extraordinary ruling last week to remove him from the ballot.
“A majority of the court holds that President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution,” the Colorado ruling said. “Because he is disqualified, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Colorado Secretary of State to list him as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot.”
Trump has pledged to challenge the decision to the United States Supreme Court.
However, after considering Colorado’s ruling, the Michigan Supreme Court chose to go a different way.
“Significantly, Colorado’s election laws differ from Michigan’s laws in a material way that is directly relevant to why the appellants in this case are not entitled to the relief they seek concerning the presidential primary election in Michigan,” the ruling said.
A left-wing group had filed an appeal against an earlier appeals court judgment that ruled that Michigan’s secretary of state lacked the ability to remove Trump from the ballot, regardless of how the 14th Amendment is interpreted. While the appeal was examined, the Democrat-controlled high court refused it because “we are not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this court.”
Attorneys for Free Speech for People, a left-wing nonprofit group also involved in efforts to remove Trump’s name off the Minnesota primary ballot, had earlier requested that Michigan’s Supreme Court rule by Christmas Day. The organization said that time was “of the essence” because “the pressing need to finalize and print the ballots for the presidential primary election.”
The verdict on Wednesday gives Trump a legal victory in a critical swing state as his campaign prepares to face various ballot challenges ahead of the 2024 election.
