Only President Trump's name will appear on Minnesota Republican primary ballot after court decision

President Donald Trump (Official White House photo by Tia Dufour)

The Minnesota Supreme Court has swiftly denied a Republican candidate’s bid to challenge President Donald Trump on the March 3 presidential primary ballot.

In a three-page order issued just five hours after hearing oral arguments Thursday, the court said GOP candidate Rocky de la Fuente’s case “lacked legal merit.” Justices released the order without a formal opinion, deciding that the time-consuming process of providing a rationale for their decision could wait so the election process could move forward.

De la Fuente’s attorney, Erick Kaardal, said earlier in the day that he would consider taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court if he lost on the state level.

“We’re challenging basically a process that has made a mockery of democracy,” Kaardal told reporters after oral arguments ended. “It’s very sad that we’re going to spend $12 million in March on a presidential primary that will only have one candidate on the GOP primary ballot.”

The decision allows printing of the ballots to proceed, with just eight days until the start of early voting on Jan. 17. No state starts absentee voting before Minnesota.

Kaardal argued on behalf of de la Fuente and Jim Martin, a Lake Elmo resident who wanted to vote for de la Fuente, that their rights had been violated. On the other side, the State of Minnesota’s lawyer said private political parties had the right to associate – or not associate – with a particular candidate.

“The right to vote, especially in a presidential primary, does not imply the right to demand the candidate that you want to vote for is in that primary,” said Nathan Hartshorn, an assistant attorney general.

Throughout the one hour of oral arguments, justices peppered attorneys for both sides with tough questions. 

Chief Justice Lorie Gildea questioned Hartshorn, wondering aloud if the state should participate in telling voters who they could vote for.

“Just at a 50,000-foot level, isn’t there something disturbing about that?” Gildea said.

But justices also challenged the plaintiffs’ position that voters’ rights had been violated because they would not be able to vote for de la Fuente.

“You’re talking about your client’s associational rights. But the (Republican) party has associational rights under the Constitution as well,” Justice Natalie Hudson told Kaardal.

The case included an odd twist: the Minnesota DFL and two Democratic statewide elected officials – Attorney General Keith Ellison and Secretary of State Steve Simon – were in the position of defending the GOP, because Republicans did not participate in the case.

A Trump campaign official told FOX 9 on Monday that the lawsuit was merely a “distraction” and “outside noise."

Justices were miffed by the GOP’s decision not to participate.

“Conspicuous by their absence is the GOP here,” Hudson said. “We don’t know what that process is or how they came to that decision (to exclude other candidates).”

Republican voters will also have a write-in option, though it’s up to the Republican party to decide whether those write-in votes will be tallied for specific candidates.

By contrast, Democratic voters will see the names of 15 presidential candidates, including one who has already dropped out of the race.