The left’s attempts to disqualify former President Donald Trump from continuing his 2024 presidential campaign against President Joe Biden has hit a roadblock in Michigan.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) recently argued that the former president should be barred from appearing on her state’s primary ballot due to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol protests.
She cited Section Three of the 14th Amendment, also known as the “Insurrection Clause,” which states that any individual who has taken an oath of office and has “engaged in insurrection,” should not hold public office.
Benson’s efforts to prevent the former president from appearing on Michigan’s electoral ballot in 2024 proved ineffective.
Michigan Court of Claims Judge James Robert dealt a blow to Benson and the Democratic Party’s anti-Trump efforts, ruling that Benson does not have the authority to remove a presidential candidate from appearing on her state’s primary ballot.
Instead, Robert said that only one institution in the U.S. could bar the former president from becoming president again: Congress.
States do not have the authority to dictate who’s eligible for federal elections https://t.co/C6zHpYBYee
— Mr. Nobody🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@BigTasty50) November 12, 2023
Robert said Congress has the authority to disqualify a political candidate under Section Three of the 14th Amendment, adding that the legislative body “possesses the broader ‘proactive’ power to decide how to apply Section 3 in the first instance,” as reported by Breitbart News.
Trump is also facing investigations by Democratic politicians in Colorado and Minnesota, who are using the “Insurrection Clause” against the former president to prevent the possibility of him reaching the White House in 2025.
The recent ruling in Michigan comes after Democrats have filed numerous lawsuits against Trump over the then-president’s actions during the 2021 Capitol protests.
Notably, House Democrats impeached Trump in 2021, weeks after the former president had left office.
Trump’s legal team, along with conservatives across America, have argued that the former president’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, do not resemble him engaging in so-called “insurrection.”
The former president’s attorneys have also said that the 14th Amendment does not apply to presidents, considering that such a prestigious position is not mentioned in its text and the oath mentioned in the amendment is not like the presidential one.
“While the Trump campaign welcomes these dismissals in Michigan and anticipates the future dismissals of the other 14th Amendment cases, we are most focused on once again winning the great state of Michigan and the re-election of President Trump next year,” a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, Steven Cheung, said.
