Judge Rejects Bid To Remove Trump From Michigan Ballot

A Michigan judge deemed this week that former President Donald Trump would remain on that state’s Republican primary ballot. The decision rejected a legal challenge citing the 14th Amendment, arguing that Trump was ineligible because of its ‘insurrection’ clause.

Michigan Court of Claims Judge James Redford made a similar decision as the Minnesota Supreme Court earlier this month. Despite the argument that Trump’s actions before the Jan. 6, 2021 protest were disqualifying, Redford disagreed.

“The judicial action of removing a candidate from the presidential ballot and prohibiting them from running essentially strips Congress of its ability to ‘by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such a disability,'” he wrote in his decision.

The judge wrote that the underlying question was a political one “that is nonjusticiable at the present time.”

“The question of whether Donald Trump is qualified or disqualified from appearing on the 2024 general election ballot in Michigan is not ripe for adjudication at this time,” he wrote.

In addition to the Michigan and Minnesota cases, Trump is facing litigation in Colorado attempting to keep him from the ballot.

The group Citizens for Responsibility and six private citizens filed the lawsuit against the former president.

Trump’s legal team filed a challenge to have the case dismissed, but it was denied by Judge Sarah B. Wallace.

Wallace was appointed to the bench last year by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D).

In addition, the Trump legal team questioned whether or not Wallace would be impartial in the trial. They cited Wallace’s 2022 $100 donation to a left-wing activism group that in part claims to work to “prevent violent insurrections.”

The effort by the Trump legal team to have Wallace recuse herself from the case was rejected.

Separately, the Minnesota Supreme Court determined that Trump was eligible for the Republican Party primary ballot and that his eligibility for the general election ballot was a separate issue.