According to a complaint filed on Wednesday in a district court in Colorado, former president Donald Trump barred himself from running for public office and should therefore be removed from Republican primary ballots in 2024.
The 77-year-old’s ineligibility for the White House is based on the “Disqualification Clause” of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution from holding federal or state office, according to the lawsuit, which was brought by the liberal nonprofit group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
CREW President Noah Bookbinder stated in a statement that “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.”
“We’re not bringing this case to prove a point; we’re bringing it because it’s essential to protecting our republic now and in the future.”
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters who were represented by CREW and two other law firms. The group claims that Trump’s involvement in “recruiting, inciting and encouraging a violent mob that attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021 in a futile attempt to remain in office” justifies his exclusion from the 2024 Colorado primary ballot.
Colorado is a suitable location to bring this first case, but it won’t be the last, the group stated, citing the state’s laws, the calendar, and the brave plaintiffs and witnesses.
The rarely utilized Disqualification Clause was incorporated into the post-Civil War 14th Amendment as a safeguard against former Confederate leaders taking over state and federal administrations and becoming elected officials.
The liberal charity Free Speech For People failed in its attempts to invoke the 14th Amendment to block the inclusion of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) on ballots for the 2022 midterm elections.
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Couy Griffin, the founder of Cowboys for Trump, was found guilty of trespassing for entering the Capitol Building during the incident on January 6, 2021, and CREW successfully fought to have him removed from the Otero County Commission in New Mexico. The group claims that its claim against Griffin is the sole successful application of the Disqualification Clause since 1869.
While bringing such a case against a former president is unheard of, Bookbinder said that the attack on January 6th was unprecedented and was the exact type of incident for which the 14th Amendment’s architects intended to provide safeguards.
“Except in an emergency, you don’t break the glass.”
The group claims it intends to file lawsuits to prevent Trump from appearing on other states’ primary ballots as well.@CREWcrew X
Some legal professionals don’t think a 14th Amendment complaint against Trump, the front-runner in the GOP primary for 2024, will succeed in court.
Jonathan Turley, a legal professor at George Washington University, stated earlier this month that the amendment was intended to deal with people who actually engage in a rebellion that results in hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Advocates would expand the definition of “insurrection or rebellion” to include erroneous allegations and objections relating to election fraud.
The Disqualification Clause theory, according to Turley, is “not just dubious, but dangerous.”
He asserted that “according to these advocates, Trump can be disqualified from the election without any accusation, much less a conviction, of insurrection or rebellion.”
