LANSING, MI (MPRN)— A legal challenge filed Friday attempts to bar former President Donald Trump from appearing on the ballot in Michigan.
The lawsuit filed in the Michigan Court of Claims says Trump should be barred under the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which was adopted after the Civil War.
Mark Brewer is an attorney for the four plaintiffs in the case. He said Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and encourage the January 6 insurrection render him ineligible to run.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
“The constitutional provision is very broad and disqualifies anybody who engages in insurrection or aids people in an insurrection from ever again holding public office,” said Brewer, who represents the four independent and Republican voters challenging Trump’s ballot status. “We think it’s quite clear that he should be disqualified and we hope to get a court order as soon as we can.”
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson – a Democrat – has said she cannot keep Trump off the state’s primary ballot without a court order.
Ron Fein is the legal director at Free Speech for People, which filed the lawsuit in Michigan and a similar one in Minnesota. He said the 14th Amendment was adopted after the Civil War to stave off future rebellions -- such as the attempt on January 6 to thwart certification of the 2020 presidential election. He said his organization could also file ballot lawsuits could be filed in other states.
“Insurrectionists can’t be trusted to return to power because if they are, they will do it again or worse,” he told Michigan Public Radio. “And they wrote that protection into the Constitution to protect the republic.”
Trump has said blocking him from the ballot would violate his First Amendment right to free speech. The Michigan Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment.