Former President Donald Trump is expected to appeal rulings from Colorado and Maine that he is no longer eligible for the presidency. It would set up a high-stakes showdown over a 155-year-old addition to the Constitution that bans from office those who “engaged in insurrection.” The appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court ruling would go to the U.S. Supreme Court, while the appeal to the ruling by Maine’s Democratic secretary of state would go to that state’s Superior Court. It would mark the first time the nation’s highest court could rule on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. It was added to the Constitution after the Civil War to prevent Confederates from returning to their former government posts.

Over the past three years, the world’s oldest democracy has been tested in ways not seen in decades. Former President Donald Trump tried to overturn Democrat Joe Biden's win, And then Trump called his supporters to Washington, where they violently stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to halt congressional certification of the 2020 vote. At the same time, American democracy has proved resilient. Trump's attempt ultimately failed. And candidates who supported his false stolen election claims lost their own races to win statewide offices that had some election oversight in battleground states. Another big test for democracy awaits in 2024, with Trump again running for the White House.

Michigan’s Supreme Court is keeping former President Donald Trump on the state's primary election ballot. The court said Wednesday it will not hear an appeal of a lower court’s ruling from groups seeking to keep Trump from appearing on the ballot. Wednesday's ruling follows a Dec. 19 decision by a divided Colorado Supreme Court, which said Trump is ineligible to be president after his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Michigan's high court says it is “not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this court.” Trump hailed the order, calling attempts to keep him off the ballot a “pathetic gambit.”