CHICAGO - The Michigan Supreme Court on Dec 27 paved the way for Donald Trump to appear on the state’s primary ballot, a victory for the former president in a battleground state.
The state’s top court upheld an appeals court decision that found that the former president could appear on the ballot despite questions about his eligibility to hold elected office because of his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
The Michigan decision followed a bombshell ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court, which on Dec 19 determined in a 4-3 opinion that Trump should be removed from the state’s 2024 Republican primary ballot for his role in the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.
The question of Trump’s eligibility is widely expected to be answered by the US Supreme Court. Some form of challenge to Trump’s eligibility has been lodged in more than 30 states, but many of those have already been dismissed.
The challengers’ arguments are based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which disqualifies anyone from holding federal office if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution after having taken an oath to support it.
A lower-court judge previously decided the ballot eligibility case in Trump’s favour. Judge James Robert Redford of the Court of Claims in Michigan ruled in November that disqualifying a candidate through the 14th Amendment was a political issue, not one for the courts. A lower court in Colorado had also ruled in Trump’s favour before the state Supreme Court took up the case.
Judge Redford also ruled that Michigan’s top elections official does not have the authority alone to exclude Trump from the ballot. Free Speech for People, a liberal-leaning group that filed the lawsuit, appealed the ruling, asking the state Supreme Court to hear the case on an accelerated timetable.
Ms Jocelyn Benson, the Michigan Secretary of State and a Democrat, echoed the request for a quick decision, citing approaching deadlines for printing paper primary ballots. She wrote that a ruling was needed by Dec 29 “in order to ensure an orderly election process”.
Jan 13 is the deadline for primary ballots to be sent to military and overseas voters; absentee voter ballots must be printed by Jan 18.
The state’s presidential primary is set for Feb 27. NYTIMES
