Former President Trump during a campaign in Claremont, New Hampshire, November 11. Image Brian Snyder / Reuters
The provision of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was introduced after the Civil War to keep former Confederate officials out of government. According to civil rights activists, Trump was the instigator of the storming of the Capitol and should therefore no longer participate in next year’s presidential elections.
So far, lawsuits filed by organizations in several states have yielded little, but activists are determined to continue their legal campaign all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Small success
In Minnesota and Michigan, judges rejected requests to remove Trump from the Republican Party primary election list on procedural grounds. According to the Minnesota Supreme Court, for the time being this is an internal issue within the Republican Party. A judge in Michigan ruled that it is a “political matter” that the judge should not get involved in at this time.
But in Colorado, activist lawyers achieved a small success, although Judge Sarah Wallace also rejected their request to remove Trump from the ballot. According to her, it is not clear whether the provision of the Fourteenth Amendment applies to the president, because it is not expressly mentioned in the text.
Trump’s spokesman Steven Cheung called the verdict “a nail in the coffin of the un-American attempts” to torpedo Trump’s candidacy for the White House in advance. Less pleasant for Trump was that the judge concluded that the former president did indeed participate in an insurrection within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment provision.
According to Judge Wallace, Trump’s actions in storming the Capitol did not fall under the right to free speech, because he clearly called for ‘unlawful acts’, while it was likely that that call would also have immediate effect.
Matter of principle
It was the first time that an American judge has concluded that the storming of the Capitol was an insurrection in which Trump was directly involved. It is currently unclear whether other judges will also adopt that conclusion. But Ron Fein of the activist group Free Speech for People saw it as a sign of hope. “We cannot allow our democracy to bow to threats of violence from unsuccessful candidates like Trump,” he responded.
The case will now go to the Colorado Supreme Court, although it is still unclear whether it will make a substantive ruling on Trump’s role in the storming of the Capitol or will limit itself to the question of whether the Fourteenth Amendment provision also applies to the president .
Some constitutional law specialists believe it is wrong in principle to use the Fourteenth Amendment provision to keep Trump out of the race for the White House. According to them, it is up to voters to decide whether Trump deserves to become president again given his role in the storming of the Capitol.
Free Speech for People and other activist groups want to initiate proceedings against Trump in many more states. Theoretically, it is possible that the situation will arise in which Trump will be allowed to participate in next year’s presidential elections in one state, but not in the other. But it is more likely that the explosive issue will end up in the hands of the US Supreme Court before then.
Also read
2023-11-23 13:30:43
#Civil #rights #groups #Donald #Trump #ballot
