Minnesota Supreme Court: Trump can remain on the ballot — for now

The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday punted on a decision that could keep former President Donald Trump off the 2024 presidential ballot in that state.

The court dismissed a lawsuit that would bar Trump from the primary ballot under a provision of the 14th Amendment that bars people from holding public office if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion.” But the justices noted on Wednesday that the decision applied only to the state’s primary, leaving open the possibility that the former president could be booted from the ballot in the general election in November.

“[There] is no state statute that prohibits a major political party from placing on the presidential nomination primary ballot, or sending delegates to the national convention supporting, a candidate who is ineligible to hold office,” Chief Justice Natalie E. Hudson wrote in an order in which the court did not explicitly address whether Trump’s role in the activities surrounding the events of Jan. 6, 2021, disqualified him.

The lawsuit, filed by Free Speech for People, a liberal group representing Minnesota voters in the case, is one of many challenging Trump’s eligibility in light of his actions surrounding the Capitol riot.

A trial for one such case in Colorado recently got underway. And in another case in New Hampshire, a judge recently dismissed a long-shot candidate’s attempt to have Trump declared ineligible.

In a statement minutes after the Minnesota decision was made public, Trump’s campaign said the order validated its argument that the 14th Amendment challenges were “nothing more than strategic, un-Constitutional attempts to interfere with the election.”