Michigan Follows Minnesota In Rejecting Lawsuit to Keep Trump Off Primary Ballot

On Tuesday Judge James Robert Redford of the Michigan Court of Claims denied1 an attempt to exclude former President Donald Trump from Michigan’s Republican primary. As with the decision of the Minnesota Supreme Court about which I recently posted and which he cited (Minnesota’s order that is, not my post), Judge Redford ruled that being qualified for the office sought is not a requirement to be a candidate for a party’s nomination for the office.2

Judge Redford also rested his decision on another basis, that the plaintiff’s claim raises a nonjusticiable political question. Although the full explanation requires a lot more detail that I can provide at the present time,3 this is where I part company with Judge Redford.

Jay Bohn

November 16, 2023

  1. Thanks to Michigan Advance’s story on the decision for a link to the actual opinion. ↩︎
  2. Regardless of one’s feelings on whether that should be the law, absent a constitutional requirement otherwise, it is a position that the legislature of a state is free to take. ↩︎
  3. But see Courts Must (Ultimately) Decide Trump’s 14th Amendment Eligibility for a brief discussion of some thoughts about the question. ↩︎