Following a court decision invalidating Michigan’s primary last week, it was widely expected that Michigan would then have to choose nominees in caucuses and state political conventions rather than an election.

That particular doomsday scenario would have set a complex series of events in motion — but the bottom line is, as I explained in my piece this morning, this would have made McCain the favorite in the state because of his influence with grassroots organizers. Further, a state nominating convention would have neutralized Romney’s fundraising advantage and made the pro-choice Rudy a non-starter among conservative party activists.

In a surprising move, this afternon the Michigan court of appeals upheld the primary while tossing out a controversial provision restricting access to voter affiliation records. This means that a January 15 primary in Michigan — occurring between Iowa and New Hampshire — is still on, despite ongoing threats from the national parties about withholding delegates for upsetting the traditional primary calendar.

UPDATE: I was relying on a personal source for my information regarding the today’s ruling, rather than wait for media confirmation. I don’t know whether I was confused or my source was, but the information above is wrong. Apparently, the court of appeals made no ruling on the primary today. More info on what happened here.