Trump May Continue To Appear In The GOP Primary in 2024: Michigan Court Of Appeals

A number of objections to the former president Donald Trump‘s candidacy pertaining to the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, were overruled by the Michigan Court of Appeals on Thursday, allowing him to continue on the state’s Republican primary ballot in 2024.

The court’s ruling is consistent with those made in Minnesota and Colorado, which decided that Trump may still be on the ballot due to the fact that primaries are party-run contests. The Michigan decision did, however, leave open the potential that Trump’s inclusion on a ballot for the general election would still be contested.

Trump’s critics contend that he should be barred from seeking the presidency in 2024 due to a Civil War-era Constitutional provision that forbids anybody who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding the office of “officer of the United States.” The 14th Amendment’s last clause, which has only been invoked a few times in history, has garnered new significance in the wake of the Capitol uprising.

Last month, a Colorado judge denied an attempt to keep Trump off the state’s primary ballot last month, ruling that the president is not expressly covered by the 14th Amendment’s language. Nonetheless, the court concluded that Donald Trump “incited” the Capitol violence and that, should the insurrection clause apply to the president, he might be removed from office.

The Michigan finding on the subject was upheld by the Minnesota Supreme Court. It stated that as the election is a party-run contest, Trump may continue to appear on the primary ballot there.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear an appeal in at least one of those cases, and it may then make its first decision regarding the insurrection clause.

These obstacles come at a time when Trump leads Republican primary polls despite being the subject of four felony indictments: three in federal court and one in Georgia pertaining to his purported plot to rig the state’s 2020 election results. An earlier attempt to keep Trump’s name off the ballot in 2024 was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court.