Liberal activists hit a Michigan courtroom Thursday as part of their latest efforts to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot, claiming he is not eligible to run for office under the Constitution’s insurrection clause.
The arguments before Judge James Robert Redford in the Michigan Court of Claims come after the Minnesota Supreme Court dismissed a similar lawsuit earlier this week that also sought to bar Mr. Trump’s candidacy. In that case, the court said the lawsuit was premature because the state’s primary had not taken place.
Colorado also has a case pending on the same matter, with reports suggesting a decision could come by the end of the month.
Though Mr. Trump is facing several indictments, he has not been charged or convicted of leading an insurrection during the attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021.
The lawyer representing the liberal advocates in Michigan insisted their case was different from the Minnesota dismissal and that Michigan voters have a right not to have an ineligible candidate on either the primary — or general — election ballots.
“Michigan candidates are often removed from primary ballots,” said Mark Brewer, who represented four Michigan voters backed by Free Speech for People, a left-leaning advocacy group. He noted that candidates have been removed based on residency status.
The group of voters sued Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to prevent Mr. Trump’s name from being printed on the ballots, but a lawyer from the secretary’s office told the judge that the office does not have the authority to decide whether or not Mr. Trump qualifies.
“It is not the secretary’s job … to make the decision as to whether Mr. Trump is disqualified,” state attorney Heather Meingast said.
Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Mike Columbo, told the court there can’t be a “patchwork” of ballots from 50 different states.
“We can’t have one state dictating who may or may not be president by virtue of their independent disqualification of that candidate,” he said.
Judge Redford said he would act with “deliberate speed” in making a decision.
Those hoping to remove Mr. Trump from state ballots point to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which reads: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
