The Michigan Supreme Court is allowing former President Donald Trump to remain on the state’s primary election ballot. On Wedneday, the high court upheld an appeals court ruling allowing the Republican Party to any candidates for the primary ballot.
Trump went on Truth Social to applaud the ruling… and to call every remaining lawsuit a “pathetic gambit.”
The court said in an order that the application by parties to appeal a Dec. 14 Michigan appeals court judgment was considered, but denied “because we are not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this court.”
The ruling contrasts with Dec. 19 decision by a divided Colorado Supreme Court which found Trump ineligible to be president because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. That ruling was the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.
The Michigan and Colorado cases are among dozens hoping to keep Trump’s name off state ballots. They all point to the so-called insurrection clause that prevents anyone from holding office who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution. Until the Colorado ruling, every single one of these dozens of lawsuits had failed.
The Colorado ruling looks likely to reach the U.S. Supreme Court, which has never ruled on the rarely used Civil War-era provision.
The plaintiffs in Michigan can technically try to invoke the insurrection clause in the general election, though it’s likely there will be a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the issue by then.
“We are disappointed by the Michigan Supreme Court’s decision,” said Ron Fein, legal director of Free Speech for People, the liberal group that filed the suit to disqualify Trump in the state. “The ruling conflicts with longstanding US Supreme Court precedent that makes clear that when political parties use the election machinery of the state to select, via the primary process, their candidates for the general election, they must comply with all constitutional requirements in that process.”
Trump hailed the order in a post on Truth Social, and he described the lawsuits as politically motivated.
“The Michigan Supreme Court has strongly and rightfully denied the Desperate Democrat attempt to take the leading Candidate in the 2024 Presidential Election, me, off the ballot in the Great State of Michigan,” Trump said.
The former president pointed out that even most Democrat-led courts have dismissed the lawsuits.
“This pathetic gambit to rig the Election has failed all across the Country, including in States that have historically leaned heavily toward the Democrats,” Trump said. “Colorado is the only State to have fallen prey to the scheme.”
Trump has previously slammed the Colorado court’s decision. The former president wrote on Truth Social earlier this month, “NO SUCH THING HAS EVER HAPPENED IN OUR COUNTRY BEFORE. BANANA REPUBLIC??? ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!”
Michigan’s court has a 4-3 Democratic majority. Only one of the court’s seven justices dissented. Justice Elizabeth M. Welch, a Democrat, wrote that she would have kept Trump on the primary ballot but the court should rule on the merits of the Section 3 challenge.
Critics of the Colorado decision have pointed out that the term “insurrection” is only an imprecise shorthand for the Capitol riot and that the term “insurrection” usually refers to secession efforts.
Trump reportedly pressed two election officials in Michigan’s Wayne County not to certify 2020 vote totals, according to a recording of a post-election phone call disclosed in a Dec. 22 report by The Detroit News.
The former president’s 2024 campaign has neither confirmed nor denied the recording’s legitimacy.
Attorneys for Free Speech for People, a liberal nonprofit group also involved in efforts to keep Trump’s name off the primary ballot in Minnesota and Oregon, had asked Michigan’s Supreme Court to render its decision by Christmas Day.
The group argued that time was “of the essence” due to “the pressing need to finalize and print the ballots for the presidential primary election.”
Earlier this month, Michigan’s high court refused to immediately hear an appeal, saying the case should remain before the appeals court.
Free Speech for People had sued to force Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to bar Trump from Michigan’s ballot. But a Michigan Court of Claims judge rejected that group’s arguments, saying in November that it was the proper role of Congress to decide the question.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article.