MFE, PIME, and Wisconsin Voter Alliance File an Amicus Curiae Brief with United States Supreme Court.
By Alex Weddon <Pen2@voxlx.com> | January 16th, 2024
Who gets to decide who can run for office? Is the government? In our constitutional republic held together by the United States Constitution, the government cannot decide who can or cannot be on the ballot. Is this an opinion? No; it’s the law of the land.
The Electors Clause of our constitution is clear: it says that a state cannot exclude any qualified candidate from the residential ballot. (Article II, section 1, clause 5 The Heritage Guide to the Constitution )The Constitution defines “qualified:”
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
Despite this, the Colorado Supreme Court and the Minnesota Supreme Court have taken matters into their own hands and prematurely disqualified someone who is constitutionally-qualified to be a presidential candidate. Additionally, Maine’s Secretary of State has unilaterally stricken a presidential candidate from the primary ballot.
We the People do not have a voice in Colorado. We the People do not have a voice in Minnesota. We the People do not have a voice in Maine.
After the general election, there is a chance that an individual who was voted into the office of President may not be able to serve. That is a check and balance provided for in the law of the land (the Constitution!).
To be sure, a President-elect, elected by the states’ presidential electors, may still not be qualified for President and this determination is a federal power only to be exercised by the federal government after the President-Elect is elected and before the commencement of the presidential four-year term.
If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified. The Heritage Guide to the Constitution (Amendment 20, Section 3)
The checks and balances started by stating who can qualifiy to be on ballots. Further checks and balances allow for the Federal government to disqualify someone who has been elected. A third check and balance of our government is the power of the judicial branch. With that, the highest judicial branch in our country, the United States Supreme Court, will decide if these states and this secretary of state have the legal authority to remove a presidential candidate from the ballot.
Organizations interested in the outcome of this hearing may petition (ask) the court for permission to file what is called an amicus curiae (Latin word meaning “friend of the court”) giving the organization’s legal opinion about the case.
Pure Integrity Michigan Elections (PIME, a 501(c)(4), Michigan Fair Elections Institute (MFE, a 501(c)(3), and Wisconsin Voter Alliance (a 501(c)(3), joined forces and filed an Amicus Curiae brief with the United States Supreme Court. These three organizations sing the same song: “We the People, not the government, get to decide who our candidates should be.”
On February 8, 2024, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on this case.
How much justice can this country afford? We the People are reminded of the observation that disease unchecked is death. This republic of the people can't afford to let their government go unchecked. We the People run from unchecked disease of governmental overreach and towards election integrity.
Alex Weddon (LX) is a member of MI Fair Elections Communications Team and author of the Close Calls on the Farm two book set. He is the former owner of a community newspaper in Michigan.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Michigan Fair Elections. Artificial intelligence may have been used in the creation of this message or in the links referenced herein.
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