After Colorado’s top court ruled that the former president was disqualified for engaging in insurrection, justices in Michigan considered a similar challenge.
Disappointing, but it looks like Michigan’s Supreme Court agreed with a lower courts decision that whether or not Trump remained on Michigan’s primary ballot was not for them to decide, and that it was a “political issue.”
With a quick one-over of the 14th Amendment, I am not sure if the Federal Supreme Court can even rule on him being on the ballot; it may be a state issue, and would be the federal government interfering in states rights.
On the other hand, the 14th Amendment makes pretty clear, unless 2/3rds of congress permit it, Trump cannot be president, and the US Supreme Court should be able to rule that he can’t be president, and it’s up to the states if they want to put someone on the ballot who can’t hold office (unless it is already ruled that someone that cannot hold the Presidency [such as anyone who was not born in the US] cannot be on the ballot, in which case, any such precedence should be upheld). If they are some how allowed on the ballot and win, they should not be allowed to hold office, and either their vice president should take office, or the winners political party if any should choose someone to hold office, or the Supreme court should rule the runner up (opposing democrat in this case) as the person to receive the next most votes should take office to respect the will of the people.
(to be clear, IF he is allowed to run and wins, but is not eligible for the office, who takes office in such situations should be decided by legislation passed by congress, and in lieu if of a law on file, the decision should fall to the Supreme court; which I highly doubt there is law on file already, and that the current congress is capable of passing any such legislation.)
A number of ways that goes, but without knowing deeper case law, that is my surface level interpretation of the 14th amendment.
By Julie Bosman and Ernesto Londoño
Reporting from Chicago
Dec. 27, 2023, 9:17 a.m. ET
The Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday paved the way for Donald J. 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 Mr. Trump should be removed from the state’s 2024 Republican primary ballot for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.
The question of Mr. Trump’s eligibility is widely expected to be answered by the U.S. Supreme Court. Some form of challenge to Mr. 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 Mr. Trump’s favor. 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 Mr. Trump’s favor before the Supreme Court there took up the case.
Judge Redford also ruled that Michigan’s top elections official does not have the authority alone to exclude Mr. 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.
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.
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