The justices of the Supreme Court of Michigan have turned down an appeal of the lower court ruling that rejected the effort to keep former President Donald Trump off of the state's 2024 presidential primary ballots. 

This, as the Associated Press reports, does not necessarily mean that the top state court will never hear the appeal. It just means that the justices will not hear the appeal right now.

This is because the case is currently at the appellate court level. And, the justices of the Michigan Supreme Court say that, before they will decide to hear the appeal, the matter has to play out at the appellate level.

The justices of the Michigan Supreme Court wrote that they are "not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this Court before consideration by the Court of Appeals.”

Michigan is one of several states where anti-Trump activists are trying to use the legal system to keep Trump's name off of their state's presidential ballots in 2024. Their argument for doing so relies on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The relevant clause states:

No person shall . . . hold any office . . . under the United States . . . who, having previously taken an oath . . . to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same . . .

The argument is that Trump took such an oath when he became president and that he "engaged in insurrection" with regard to the Capitol protest of Jan. 6, 2021.

Legal experts have cast serious doubt on the legitimacy of this argument, and it is failing to gain any traction in the courts.

Regarding the effort in Michigan, ABC News reports:

The liberal group Free Speech for People — a nonprofit also behind a lawsuit seeking to keep Trump off Minnesota's ballot — had sued to force Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to bar Trump from Michigan's ballot. Court of Claims Judge James Redford rejected their arguments. Redford said in a Nov. 14 order that it was the proper role of Congress to decide the question.

Since then, Free Speech for People has desperately been trying to find a way around Redford's decision.

The group petitioned the state's supreme court, asking the justices to hear an appeal because, in their view, there is a "virtual certainty" that whatever the appellate court decides that decision will be appealed to the state supreme court.

The group further argued that the matter ought to go straight to the state supreme court because time is "of the essence" given "the pressing need to finalize and print the ballots for the presidential primary election."

The justices of Michigan's supreme court, however, were unconvinced by these arguments. And, now, the appellate court will have to render a decision in the case before it can be appealed to the state supreme court.

This has to be considered another win for Trump.