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STATE OF MINNESOTA 

IN SUPREME COURT 

A23-1354 

Joan Growe, et al., 

 Petitioners, 

vs. 

Steve Simon, Minnesota Secretary of State, 

 Respondent. 

ORDER 

 On September 12, 2023, petitioners filed a petition pursuant to Minnesota Statutes 

section 204B.44 (2022) asking, in part, for an order declaring that Donald J. Trump, who 

served as President of the United States and has filed federal paperwork as a candidate for 

President in the 2024 election, is disqualified from holding the office of President of the 

United States pursuant to Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States 

Constitution; and directing the Secretary of State to exclude Donald J. Trump from the 

ballot for the March 5, 2024, presidential nomination primary and from the ballot for the 

November 5, 2024, general election as a candidate for the office of President of the United 

States. Absentee voting for the presidential nomination primary will begin January 19, 

2024. See Minn. Stat. § 204B.35, subd. 4 (2022); see also Minn. Stat. § 204B.45, subd. 2 

(2022). 

November 8, 2023
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 Before considering petitioners’ request to pursue discovery and hold an evidentiary 

hearing, we determined first to address threshold and potentially dispositive legal issues of 

justiciability and the legal construction of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the 

United States Constitution. We directed petitioners, the Secretary of State, the Republican 

Party of Minnesota, and former President Trump to file briefs addressing these issues and 

held a hearing on November 2, 2023. 

 We conclude that petitioners have standing and that their claims are ripe as to the 

issue of whether former President Trump should be excluded from the 2024 Republican 

presidential nomination primary. We reach a different conclusion regarding petitioners’ 

claim that it would be error for the Secretary of State to place former President Trump’s 

name on the ballot for the 2024 general election ballot. That claim is neither ripe, nor is it 

“about to occur” as section 204B.44(a) requires. 

 With respect to the only ripe issue before us at this time, we conclude that under 

section 204B.44, there is no “error” to correct here as to the presidential primary election 

if former President Trump’s name is included on the presidential primary ballot after the 

Chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota provides his name to the Secretary of State, 

notwithstanding petitioners’ claim that former President Trump is disqualified from 

holding office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Legislature enacted the 

presidential nomination primary process to allow major political parties to select delegates 

to the national conventions of those parties; at those conventions the selected delegates will 

cast votes along with delegates from all of the other states and territories and choose a 

presidential candidate who will subsequently appear on general election ballots. See Minn. 
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Stat. § 207A.11(d) (2022) (explaining that the presidential nomination primary “only 

applies to a major political party that selects delegates at the presidential nomination 

primary to send to a national convention”). This is “a process that allows political parties 

to obtain voter input in advance of a nomination decision made at a national convention.” 

De La Fuente v. Simon, 940 N.W.2d 477, 492 (Minn. 2020). Thus, although the Secretary 

of State and other election officials administer the mechanics of the election, this is an 

internal party election to serve internal party purposes, and winning the presidential 

nomination primary does not place the person on the general election ballot as a candidate 

for President of the United States. As we explained in De La Fuente, in upholding the 

constitutionality of this statutory scheme for the presidential nomination primary, “[t]he 

road for any candidate’s access to the ballot for Minnesota’s presidential nomination 

primary runs only through the participating political parties, who alone determine which 

candidates will be on the party’s ballot.” 940 N.W.2d at 494–95. And there is no state 

statute that prohibits a major political party from placing on the presidential nomination 

primary ballot, or sending delegates to the national convention supporting, a candidate who 

is ineligible to hold office. 

Because there is no error to correct here as to the presidential nomination primary, 

and petitioners’ other claims regarding the general election are not ripe, the petition must 

be dismissed, but without prejudice as to petitioners bringing a petition raising their claims 

as to the general election. 

Based upon all the files, records, and proceedings herein, 
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IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT: 

1. The petition is dismissed, but without prejudice as to the general election. 

2. So as not to impair the orderly election process, this order is issued with an 

opinion to follow. 

 Dated: November 8, 2023 BY THE COURT: 

 Natalie E. Hudson 

Chief Justice 

 CHUTICH, PROCACCINI, JJ., took no part in the consideration or decision of 

this case.