The Oregon Supreme Court put down efforts to remove former President Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary and general election ballots for 2024. In a Friday ruling, the higher court refused to review the challenge to Trump’s candidacy in the state which was brought on by five voters.
Oregon Supreme Court Shoots Down Challenge Seeking To Remove Trump From Ballot https://t.co/y4QmPeCA6o pic.twitter.com/7mlU3H0VD0
— Daily Wire News (@DailyWireNews) January 12, 2024
“Today, the Oregon Supreme Court declined to hear, for now, a challenge by five Oregon voters (relators) seeking to preclude Donald J. Trump from appearing on the Oregon 2024 Republican primary and general election ballots,” a news release from the court read.
In her order, Oregon Chief Justice Meagan Flynn cited a lack of authority to take on the case, pointing to the Colorado case, which the U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing after the state’s Supreme Court ruled that Trump should be taken off the ballot.
Flynn, however, said the challenge to Trump’s candidacy can be filed again if the U.S. Supreme Court rules against the GOP presidential candidate.
In the court’s words, “Because a decision by the United States Supreme Court regarding the Fourteenth Amendment issue may resolve one or more contentions that relators make in the Oregon proceeding, the Oregon Supreme Court denied their petition for mandamus, by order, but without prejudice to their ability to file a new petition seeking resolution of any issue that may remain following a decision by the United States Supreme Court.”
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung praised the high court’s decision in a statement, saying, “Today’s decision in Oregon was the correct one. President Trump urges the swift dismissal of all remaining, bad-faith, election interference 14th Amendment ballot challenges.”
The challenge to Trump’s ballot qualification was taken to the state’s Supreme Court after Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade refused to remove the GOP front runner’s name from the ballot, saying she does not have the authority to determine whether a candidate is qualified for the presidential primary or not.
In her announcement in November, Griffin-Valade, a Democrat, said, “Oregon law does not give me the authority to determine the qualifications of candidates in a presidential primary. I will follow our usual process and expect to put Donald Trump on the primary ballot unless a court directs me otherwise.”
Unlike Griffin-Valade, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows deemed it appropriate to disqualify Trump from Maine’s ballot last year. In a December announcement, Bellows wrote, “I am mindful that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”
