Michigan court rejects bid to bar Trump from 2024 ballot

The ruling came a week after Colorado’s Supreme Court removed the former president from the state’s primary over his role in the Capitol riot.

Donald Trump hailed the Michigan decision, slamming a ‘Desperate Democrat attempt’ to stack the deck against him. Picture: AFP

The Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an attempt to remove Donald Trump from the crucial swing state’s primary ballot next year over his role in the 2021 storming of the US Capitol.

It was the latest in a series of bids to block Mr Trump from appearing on ballots in multiple states under the 14th Amendment, which says officials who take an oath to support the US Constitution are banned from future office if they “engaged in insurrection”. But Michigan’s high court said in a brief ruling it was “not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this court” ahead of the state’s February 27 presidential primary.

The ruling came a week after Colorado’s Supreme Court removed Mr Trump from the state’s primary ballot over his role in the Capitol riot, which the former president is accused of inciting.

Mr Trump, 77, hailed the Michigan decision, slamming a “Desperate Democrat attempt” to stack the deck against him as he seeks another term in the White House.

“This pathetic gambit to rig the Election has failed all across the Country, including in States that have historically leaned heavily toward the Democrats,” he posted on Truth Social, his social media platform.

Colorado’s highest court issued a stay of its ruling until January 4 pending an expected appeal by Mr Trump’s lawyers to the Supreme Court.

Granting the Colorado case for review would thrust the country’s top court into the centre of the White House race, as any determination it makes on whether Mr Trump engaged in insurrection and on his eligibility could be binding on lower courts nationwide.

The Michigan lawsuit was filed in September by liberal-leaning Free Speech For People, a pro-democracy advocacy group that also pursued an unsuccessful 14th Amendment challenge against Mr Trump in Minnesota and has filed a case in Oregon.

“The court’s decision is disappointing but we will continue, at a later stage, to seek to uphold this critical constitutional provision designed to protect our republic,” said election lawyer Mark Brewer, who joined the group in the lawsuit.

“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.”

Michigan’s lower courts dismissed the case on procedural grounds early in the process, a decision upheld on appeal, meaning the question of whether Mr Trump engaged in insurrection was not addressed.

Judge Elizabeth Welch, one of four Democrat-nominated justices on the seven-member panel, acknowledged the Colorado decision but said that state’s election law differed from Michigan’s “in a material way” in requiring candidates to be “qualified” to run.

“The appellants have identified no analogous provision in the Michigan Election Law that requires someone seeking the office of President of the United States to attest to their legal qualification to hold the office,” Judge Welch wrote.

Meanwhile, Maine’s top elections official, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, is considering challenges to Trump’s eligibility for the March 5 primary in the Democrat-leaning northeastern state. Mr Trump’s legal team on Wednesday called for Ms Bellows to recuse herself, describing her as a “completely biased Democrat partisan and a Biden supporter who is incapable of making a fair decision”.

AFP