Michigan Supreme Court keeps Donald Trump on 2024 primary ballot

US state’s top court refuses to hear appeal seeking to keep the ex-president from appearing on primary ballot.

Michigan’s Supreme Court is keeping former President Donald Trump on the state’s primary election ballot.

The court on Wednesday said it will not hear an appeal of a lower court’s ruling from groups seeking to keep Trump from appearing on the primary ballot ahead of the presidential election in the United States.

The state’s high court said in an order that the application by parties to appeal a December 14 Michigan appeals court judgement was considered but denied “because we are not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this court”.

The ruling followed a December 19 decision by a divided Colorado Supreme Court, which found Trump ineligible to be president because of his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

That ruling was the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.

The Michigan and Colorado cases are among dozens seeking to keep Trump’s name off state ballots.

They all point to the so-called insurrection clause, which prevents anyone from holding office who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the US Constitution.

The 2020 election between Trump and now President Joe Biden was tight in Michigan.

According to a recording of a post-election phone call disclosed in a December 22 report by The Detroit News, Trump had pressed two election officials in Michigan’s Wayne County not to certify its 2020 vote totals and confirm Biden had won there.

The former president’s 2024 campaign has neither confirmed nor denied the recording’s legitimacy.

Attorneys for Free Speech for People, a liberal nonprofit group also involved in efforts to keep Trump’s name off the primary ballot in Minnesota, had asked Michigan’s Supreme Court to render its decision by Christmas Day.

The group argued that time was “of the essence” due to “the pressing need to finalise and print the ballots for the presidential primary election”.