The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an attempt to keep Donald Trump off of the 2024 Republican presidential primary ballot in the northern US state.
At the same time, the state’s highest court said it would be open to hearing an eventual challenge to Trump’s eligibility to appear on the November 2024 presidential election ballot.
Legal efforts to bar the former president from next year’s White House race are underway in several states on the grounds that he violated his oath of office by engaging in an insurrection — the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.
The argument, which has legal scholars sharply divided, rests on an amendment to the Constitution ratified after the 1861-65 Civil War.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars anyone from holding public office if they engage in “insurrection or rebellion” after once having pledged to support and defend the Constitution.
Ratified in 1868, the amendment was aimed at preventing supporters of the slave-holding Confederacy from being elected to Congress or from holding federal positions.
Citing the 14th Amendment, a group of voters in Minnesota petitioned the state supreme court to…
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