(WWJ) – (WWJ) – A Michigan Court of Claims judge heard arguments Thursday on whether Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has the authority to keep former president Donald Trump’s name off state ballots for the 2024 Presidential Election.
With dueling lawsuits in the state on both sides of the issue, Judge James Robert Redford began hearing arguments in the case Thursday morning in Grand Rapids.
Two separate lawsuits filed by activists cite the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, saying it prohibits a person from running for federal office if they have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the U.S. or given aid or comfort to those who have.
Activist Robert Davis argued during Thursday’s hearing the amendment gives the Secretary of State “statutory authority to investigate improper administration of the election laws of the state.”
“She was administered an oath of office to which she swore to uphold and to support both our state constitution and United States Constitution,” Davis said. “Certainly one cannot be upholding the federal constitution if they permit a candidate who is otherwise ineligible under the United States Constitution.”
Attorney Michael Columbo, however, argued Trump should be kept on the ballot, should he win the Republican Primary.
“This case and others like it demand reading the law as a whole and interpreting the parts in ways that let the system work. We have to avoid inadvertently creating a crisis that an otherwise blinkered approach might cause,” he said.
Columbo said allowing the SOS or another agency to disqualify a candidate from running “has an impact beyond the state.”
Benson already has said in a filing that Michigan’s Legislature does not give her the authority to determine whether a candidate for president may be disqualified for the state ballot. She has said she will follow the court’s decision either way.
Liberal groups have filed similar lawsuits in Colorado and Minnesota to also bar Trump from the ballot, portraying him as the inciter of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to the Associated Press. The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit citing the provision. The court’s ruling said its decision applied only to the state’s primary, according to the AP report.