Group Sues to Have Trump Removed from Ballot - And It Has a Track Record of Getting What It Wants
A left-wing group that succeeded in having one candidate thrown off the ballot over his actions on Jan 6, 2021, has filed a lawsuit in Colorado demanding that state officials prevent former President Donald Trump’s name from appearing on the 2024 presidential ballot.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics filed a lawsuit Wednesday claiming that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution should bar Trump from elected office because he fomented “insurrection” against the U.S. government.
Section 3 reads as follows:
“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
This 14th Amendment clause was added to the Constitution in 1868, ostensibly to bar politicians and military officers of the Confederacy from gaining federal office after the Civil War.
In a serious threat to Trump’s 2024 candidacy, CREW and those who support the concept behind the lawsuit claim the then-president’s conduct following the 2020 election led to the incursion of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
The suit was filed on behalf of six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters, including former U.S. Rep. Claudine Schneider and former state Senate Majority Leader Norma Anderson.
CREW President Noah Bookbinder said in a statement Wednesday that the lawsuit is important because “it is necessary to defend our republic both today and in the future.”
“If the very fabric of our democracy is to hold, we must ensure that the Constitution is enforced and the same people who attacked our democratic system not be put in charge of it,” Bookbinder said.
“While it is unprecedented to bring this type of case against a former president,” he said, “January 6th was an unprecedented attack that is exactly the kind of event the framers of the 14th Amendment wanted to build protections in case of. You don’t break the glass unless there’s an emergency.”
As for Trump, he has excoriated attempts to bar him from the ballot, calling them “election interference.”
“The people who are pursuing this absurd conspiracy theory and political attack on President Trump are stretching the law beyond recognition,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement to ABC News, adding, “There is no legal basis for this effort except in the minds of those who are pushing it.”
The lawsuit says that “[b]ecause Trump swore an oath to ‘preserve, protect and defend’ the Constitution upon assuming the Office of the President on January 20, 2017 and then engaged in insurrection against the Constitution on and around January 6, 2021, he is disqualified under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment from ‘hold[ing] any office … under the United States,’ including the Office of the President.”
However, often lost in these discussions is Trump’s video message that day telling protesters to stay peaceful. At one point, he even told them to “stand down” and go home.
That is hardly a call to “insurrection.”
Fourteenth Amendment challenges have been defeated several times. Last month, a judge in Florida dismissed a case seeking Trump’s name be removed from the ballot, and Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes — who is a Democrat — has said he has no authority to remove Trump’s name from the ballot in the Copper State.
Still, CREW has succeeded in using its 14th Amendment argument to throw one candidate off the ballot.
In September 2022, a judge agreed with CREW’s claims that Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin should be barred from running for office in New Mexico because he crossed the barriers and walked toward the Capitol on Jan. 6. Not only was Griffin barred from running for office, but he was also deposed from the position he held.
Trump is right, though. This is election interference.
Democrats aren’t approaching the American people, presenting their policies and making their argument for America’s vote. They are using backroom, underhanded tactics to prevent you from even having a chance to vote for the person of your choosing.
This is banana republic stuff.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
