One of the many lawsuits attempting to kick President Donald Trump off the 2024 ballot has hit another brick wall. The Minnesota Supreme Court heard arguments in a case to deny the president access to the state’s ballot next year. The plaintiffs are making the absurd argument—as they’ve tried in Florida, Colorado, and other states—that the “Insurrection” clause of the 14th Amendment bars America’s real president (who won by a lot in 2020) from holding elective office again. In a worrisome sign for the plaintiffs, the Minnesota Supreme Court didn’t seem persuaded by that argument.
The “Insurrection” clause of the 14th Amendment states that any Representative or Senator, or any state legislator or “officer” of the United States, who has “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” is barred from holding those types of positions in the future.
The problem with this argument, which Trump’s attorneys are highlighting in all of these cases, is that the President of the United States is not listed in the 14th Amendment. The president takes a different oath than the one that Members of Congress, military officers, and cabinet members take. Another problem that every single one of these cases (and there are a lot of them) are going to run into is that the Supreme Court has ruled multiple times over the years, in unrelated cases, that the President of the United States is not an “officer of the United States.” It’s a completely different legal term that has no relation to the chief of the Executive branch.
Earlier this year, some nobody of a candidate who is trying to run for president as a Republican sued to have Trump taken off the ballot in Florida, using this silly insurrection argument. The lower court dismissed the case, and the federal appeals court upheld the lower court ruling. On October 9th, the US Supreme Court upheld the appeals court ruling. That should have been a signal to every court in all the other states that these dopy insurrection lawsuits aren’t going to go anywhere with the highest court in the land.
The Michigan Supreme Court seems to have listened.
During a hearing in that court last week, Chief Justice Natalie Hudson stated, “[Those powers] seem to suggest there is a fundamental role for Congress to play and not the states because of that. It’s that interrelation that I think is troubling, that suggests that this is a national matter for Congress to decide.”
Justice Hudson also stated that it would likely inject “chaos” into the system if individual states could determine who is or is not eligible to run for president. If Democrats start kicking Donald Trump off the ballot in blue states over a fake “insurrection” charge, guess what happens next?
Joe Biden can kiss the electoral votes of every red state goodbye. Donald Trump didn’t cause or lead an insurrection, but Joe Biden did take bribes from Communist China and other enemy nations. If anyone deserves to be kicked off the ballot in a few states next year, it’s Beijing Biden.
The Michigan Supreme Court has yet to rule on the case trying to kick Donald Trump off the ballot next year. However, the state’s Supreme Court asked all the right questions when talking to the plaintiffs. It looks like all of these fake “insurrection” cases are going nowhere fast.
