Experts weigh in after Michigan Supreme Court rejects removing Trump from ballot
(CBS DETROIT) - Michigan's highest court rejected an attempt to prevent former President Donald Trump from being placed on the ballot in the Republican primary election.
"The serious question is, who gets to decide that?" said Matthew Schneider, a partner at Honigman and former U.S. Attorney.
Schneider is referring to who has the legal authority to decide who can be disqualified from running in an election based on the state's so-called "Insurrection Law" listed in the Constitution.
"There is a really particular part of the constitution that relates to this, a lot of people are saying... well Donald Trump committed an insurrection against the United States. And with the Colorado Supreme Court, they really found they found that he committed an insurrection against the constitution so that's a question that's going to be in front of the US Supreme Court as well," he said.
Colorado's Supreme Court disqualified Trump based on a legal objection citing his involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
However, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected a bid on Wednesday to remove Trump from the ballot.
Schneider said this is not the first time a presidential candidate's eligibility to run has been legally challenged.
"Remember, there were arguments when John McCain ran for president ... Was he eligible? He was born in the Canal Zone, which was not a U.S. state, and then people talked about Barack Obama. There were court challenges about that because of his birth certificate, and whatever it might've said. So, it's not the first time people tried to challenge the eligibility of a president or candidate to serve, and it won't be the last time either," he said.
Schneider said this issue will have to be taken up by the US Supreme Court before the start of the primary elections.
"It's likely this case will be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court to make a determination once and for all," he said.
