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 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 decision contrasts with the recent ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court, which kicked Trump off the state’s primary ballot over his role in the Capitol riot, which he is accused of inciting.
Trump hailed the Michigan ruling, 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, or freeze, of its bombshell ruling until January 4 pending an expected appeal by Trump’s lawyers to the US Supreme Court.
Granting the Colorado case for review would thrust the country’s top court into the center of the White House race, as any ruling it makes on whether Trump engaged in insurrection and on his eligibility could be binding on lower courts nationwide.
The Michigan lawsuit was filed in September by Free Speech For People, a pro-democracy advocacy group that also pursued an unsuccessful 14th Amendment challenge against 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,” election lawyer Mark Brewer, who joined the group in the lawsuit, said in a statement.
“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 Trump engaged in insurrection was never addressed.
Justice Elizabeth Welch, one of four Democratic-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,” Welch wrote.
The 77-year-old Trump is scheduled to go on trial in Washington in March on charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
He faces similar election-related charges in Georgia and has been indicted in Florida for alleged mishandling of top secret documents after leaving the Oval Office.
