Peter Meijer in court filing: Donald Trump should get spot on Michigan ballot

Lansing — Former U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer, a Republican who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump in 2021, submitted a court filing Friday, arguing that Trump's name should be allowed to appear on Michigan ballots next year.

Meijer of Grand Rapids Township, through his attorney, Charles Spies, has filed a brief in an ongoing court case over Trump's eligibility as Trump seeks to run for president again in 2024. Multiple lawsuits in Michigan have asked judges to block Trump's name from appearing on the Feb. 27 presidential primary ballot.

"Ordering the Secretary of State to remove Donald Trump from the ballot would open the floodgates for lawsuits across the political spectrum," Meijer's new brief said. "The implications are not hard to predict."

A group of Michigan voters sued Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in September, contending the former president should be disqualified from having his name on primary and general election ballots under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The amendment, which dates back to the aftermath of the Civil War, says no one can hold office if they have previously taken an oath to support the Constitution but "engaged in insurrection or rebellion."

Some legal experts, including retired judge J. Michael Luttig and Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard, have said the 14th Amendment should block Trump from running for president again after efforts to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 included Trump's supporters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Meijer's decision to get involved in the fight over Trump's eligibility is significant given Meijer's past disagreements with Trump and because Meijer is currently considering launching a bid for the U.S. Senate in Michigan.

"Voters in Michigan deserve to have the opportunity to support the candidate of their choice, including former President Trump," Meijer said in a statement Friday. "I filed an amicus brief today to support Mr. Trump being on the ballot because our democracy relies on the ability of voters, not judges or partisan election officials, to determine their leaders."

Meijer's brief was filed in a case pending in the Michigan Court of Claims. A judicial decision to block Trump would be "tantamount to election interference and open a Pandora’s box of political pretexts to remove future candidate options from the voters of Michigan," the court filing said.

Meijer was one of 10 Republican members of the U.S. House who voted to impeach then-President Trump for “incitement of insurrection" in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Meijer then lost his bid for reelection in 2022 in the GOP primary after Trump endorsed Meijer's opponent, John Gibbs,

Gibbs went on to lose a longtime safe Republican congressional district in west Michigan to Democrat Hillary Scholten.

Trump remains a highly influential figure in GOP politics — he widely viewed as the leading Republican candidate for president — and Meijer formed an exploratory committee to potentially run for the U.S. Senate in Michigan next year.

Meijer's new court filing says Meijer "is a registered voter in the state of Michigan and continues to engage in politics within the state."

cmauger@detroitnews.com