The Michigan Supreme Court denied a request to remove Donald Trump from the important swing state's primary ballot next year because of his role in the 2021 US Capitol storming.
Opponents of the Republican former president wanted justices to order election authorities to investigate if Trump's efforts to overturn his defeat in 2020, as well as the unrest in Washington, should disqualify him from running again.
However, the Supreme Court stated in a brief statement that it was "not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this court" ahead of Michigan's presidential primary on February 27.
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It was the latest in a string of attempts to keep Trump off primary ballots in numerous states under the 14th Amendment, which specifies that officials who take an oath to protect the US Constitution are barred from future office if they "engaged in insurrection."
The decision contrasts with a recent Colorado Supreme Court verdict that removed Trump from the state's primary ballot due to his role in the Capitol disturbance, which he is accused of inciting.
Free Speech For People, a pro-democracy advocacy group that earlier attempted an unsuccessful 14th Amendment challenge against Trump in Minnesota and has filed a case in Oregon, filed the Michigan action in September.
Lower courts in Michigan dismissed the complaint on procedural grounds early in the process, a judgment affirmed on appeal. Thus, the question of whether Trump engaged in insurgency was never addressed.
Justice Elizabeth Welch, one of four Democratic-nominated justices on the seven-member court, acknowledged the Colorado decision but stated that the state's election law differed from Michigan's "in a material way" in requiring candidates to be "qualified" to run.
"The appellants have identified no analogous provision in the Michigan Election Law that requires someone seeking the office of President of the United States to attest to their legal qualification to hold the office," Welch stated in his letter.
