Photo credit © Reuters
by Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former US President Donald Trump, targeted by legal proceedings demanding his ineligibility for next November’s election, won a victory on Wednesday in Michigan, where the Supreme Court refused to hear a complaint against to prevent him from taking part in the primaries in the state.
Four voters petitioned Michigan’s highest court to demand that Donald Trump be barred from the state’s Republican primary on February 27 for his role in the deadly assault on the Washington Capitol on January 6, 2021, citing an amendment of the American Constitution which prohibits from public office any person who has taken part in an “insurrection or rebellion” after having taken the oath for the United States.
In a succinct decision, the Supreme Court justices said they were “not persuaded that the issues presented should be considered” by the court.
Via his social network Truth, Donald Trump estimated that the court “firmly and legitimately rejected” what he presented as a “desperate attempt by Democrats” to exclude him from the vote in Michigan.
This decision by the Michigan Supreme Court contrasts with that of the highest court in Colorado, seized for the same reasons, which ruled last week that Donald Trump could not appear on the ballot due to a provision of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. Trump has expressed his intention to go to the United States Supreme Court to overturn this judgment.
Donald Trump has been criminally charged at the federal level and in the state of Georgia for his efforts to overturn the results of the November 2020 presidential election, lost to Democrat Joe Biden, but without being charged with insurrection for the incidents of January 6, 2021.
A judgment from the Supreme Court of the United States could resolve the question of the eligibility of Donald Trump, who remains the favorite for the nomination of the Republican Party despite his legal setbacks.
Unlike the Colorado Supreme Court, Michigan’s highest court did not rule on whether or not Donald Trump participated in the insurrection of January 6, 2021. It confirmed the verdict rendered in previous instances according to which a court does not have to rule on the fate of electoral primaries.
An attorney for the voters who filed the suit described the move as procedural, noting that the Michigan Supreme Court allowed them to restart the process.
“The Court’s decision is disappointing, but we will continue to seek to uphold this essential constitutional provision to protect our republic,” Mark Brewer said in a statement.
Michigan is considered one of the so-called “swing” states that can decide the outcome of the presidential election at the national level.
(Reporting Andrew Goudsward, Jasper Ward and Ismail Shakil; French version Jean Terzian, editing by Kate Entringer)
©2023 Thomson Reuters, all rights reserved. Reuters content is the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. “Reuters” and the Reuters Logo are trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies.