Former President Donald Trump has praised the Michigan Supreme Court for having “strongly and rightfully” rejected a 14th Amendment effort to ban him from the ballot, calling the attempt to prevent him from running a “pathetic gambit” to rig the 2024 presidential election.
The decision by Michigan’s highest court stands in marked contrast to a ruling handed down last week by the Colorado Supreme Court, which removed President Trump from the Colorado primary ballot and disqualified him from serving as president.
Attorneys for the former president have vowed to fight the Colorado decision before the U.S. Supreme Court, while some experts have said they expect the nation’s top court to rule in favor of President Trump since he hasn’t even been charged with insurrection or rebellion.
The former president took to Truth Social on Wednesday to praise the Michigan Supreme Court decision—and denounce the 14th Amendment-based efforts to block his road to the White House.
“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,” President Trump wrote.
“This pathetic gambit to rig the Election has failed all across the Country, including in States that have historically leaned heavily toward the Democrats. Colorado is the only State to have fallen prey to the scheme,” he continued, while reiterating his long-running claim that he was cheated out of a win in the 2020 presidential election
“We have to prevent the 2024 Election from being Rigged and Stolen like they stole 2020 - just look at the complete mess we have as a result with Crooked Joe Biden violently destroying everything in his sight, from our once-great Economy to our once-fair Justice System,” the former president wrote.
President Trump has accused his political foes of having “weaponized” the Department of Justice (DOJ) against him in a bid to thwart his presidential campaign. He faces a number of civil and criminal cases, including ones that accuse him of mishandling national security secrets and of trying to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Over a dozen lawsuits have been filed in 2023 seeking to end his presidential candidacy under interpretations of the 14th Amendment.
Michigan Supreme Court Ruling
The Michigan Supreme Court’s Dec. 27 decision denied an appeal against the former president on what appeared to be technical grounds.Specifically, the court order states that the justices were “not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this Court,” with the brief order not addressing questions about whether President Trump engaged in an “insurrection” or whether Section 3 of the 14th Amendment applies in the case.
There was one dissent from Justice Elizabeth Welch.
“The only legal issue properly before the Court is whether the Court of Claims and the Court of Appeals erred by holding that the Michigan Secretary of State lacks legal authority to remove or withhold former President Donald J. Trump’s name from Michigan’s 2024 presidential primary ballot,” Justice Welch wrote in the dissent.
“Significantly, Colorado’s election laws differ from Michigan’s laws in a material way that is directly relevant to why the appellants in this case are not entitled to the relief they seek concerning the presidential primary election in Michigan,” she wrote, adding that “while not adopted by [a lower court], I would also vacate the Court of Claims’ analysis and application of the political question doctrine as unnecessary dicta considering the court’s conclusions on the merits as to the primary election and ripeness as to the general election. ... For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.”
Colorado Supreme Court Decision
The Colorado Supreme Court’s Dec. 19 ruling centered on a section of the 14th Amendment that bars officials who have engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” from holding office.The left-leaning group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sued the Colorado secretary of state to block President Trump from appearing on the ballot, arguing that “officer of the United States” would surely cover the highest office in the federal government, and so the 14th Amendment’s disqualification clause should apply, they claimed.
Judge Wallace did, however, find that President Trump engaged in an “insurrection,” and, on appeal, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. president is a public “officer,” and so the 14th Amendment’s disqualification clause does apply.
The unprecedented Colorado Supreme Court ruling makes President Trump the first candidate in U.S. history to be declared ineligible to run for the White House.
However, one of the dissenting Colorado justices, Judge Carlos Samour, wrote that he believes President Trump’s due process rights were violated under the order.
“Our government cannot deprive someone of the right to hold public office without due process of law,” he wrote in his dissent.
“Even if we are convinced that a candidate committed horrible acts in the past—dare I say, engaged in insurrection—there must be procedural due process before we can declare that individual disqualified from holding public office.”
