The Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an attempt to remove former US president Donald Trump from the crucial swing-state’s primary ballot next year over his role in the 2021 storming of the US Capitol.
It was the latest in a series of bids to block Trump from appearing on ballots in multiple states under the 14th amendment of the US constitution, which says officials who take an oath to support the US constitution are banned from future office if they “engaged in insurrection.”
However, Michigan’s high court said in a brief ruling it was “not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this court” ahead of the state’s Feb. 27 presidential primary.
Photo: Reuters
The decision contrasts with the recent ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court, which kicked Trump off the state’s primary ballot over his role in the Capitol riot, which he is accused of inciting. Trump hailed the Michigan ruling, slamming a “Desperate Democrat attempt” to stack the deck against him as he seeks another term in the White House.
“This pathetic gambit to rig the Election has failed all across the Country, including in States that have historically leaned heavily toward the Democrats,” he posted on Truth Social, his social media platform.
Colorado’s highest court issued a stay or freeze of its bombshell ruling until Thursday next week pending an expected appeal by Trump’s lawyers to the US Supreme Court.
Granting the Colorado case for review would thrust the country’s top court into the center of the White House race, as any ruling it makes on whether Trump engaged in insurrection and on his eligibility could be binding on lower courts nationwide.
The Michigan lawsuit was filed in September by Free Speech For People, a pro-democracy advocacy group that also pursued an unsuccessful 14th amendment challenge against Trump in Minnesota and has filed a case in Oregon.
“The court’s decision is disappointing but we will continue, at a later stage, to seek to uphold this critical constitutional provision designed to protect our republic,” election lawyer Mark Brewer, who joined the group in the lawsuit, said in a statement. “Trump led a rebellion and insurrection against the Constitution when he tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election and he is disqualified from ever seeking or holding public office again.”
Michigan’s lower courts dismissed the case on procedural grounds early in the process, a decision upheld on appeal, meaning the question of whether Trump engaged in insurrection was never addressed.
US Justice Elizabeth Welch, one of four Democratic-nominated justices on the seven-member panel, acknowledged the Colorado decision, but said that state’s election law differed from Michigan’s “in a material way” in requiring candidates to be “qualified” to run.
The 77-year-old Trump is scheduled to go on trial in Washington in March on charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election won by US President Joe Biden.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
RSS