Trump wins case to stay on ballot in Michigan

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DETROIT — A Michigan judge ruled Tuesday that former President Donald Trump will remain on the state’s primary ballot, dealing a blow to the effort to stop Trump’s candidacy with a Civil War-era Constitutional clause.

It marks the second time in a week that a state court declined to remove Trump from a primary ballot under the insurrection provision of the 14th Amendment.

In Michigan, Court of Claims Judge James Redford rejected arguments that Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol meant the court had to declare him ineligible for the presidency. Redford wrote that, because Trump followed state law in qualifying for the primary ballot, he cannot remove the former president.

He said it should be up to Congress to decide whether Trump is disqualified under the section of the U.S. Constitution that bars a person who “engaged in insurrection” from office.

Free Speech For People, a liberal group that has brought 14th Amendment cases in a number of states, said it will appeal the ruling to the Michigan Court of Appeals, but also asked the state Supreme Court to step in and take the case on an expedited basis.