Suit filed to keep Trump off the 2024 ballot.

[TC Talks]

The 14th amendment clause is cloudy, but could prevent Trump from running.

DENVER (AP) — A liberal group on Wednesday filed a lawsuit to bar former President Donald Trump from the primary ballot in Colorado, arguing he is ineligible to run for the White House again under a rarely used clause in the U.S. Constitution aimed at candidates who have supported an “insurrection.”

The lawsuit, citing the 14th Amendment, is likely the initial step in a legal challenge that seems destined for the U.S. Supreme Court. The complaint was filed on behalf of six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters by the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

It will jolt an already unsettled 2024 primary campaign that features the leading Republican candidate facing four separate criminal cases.

Liberal groups have demanded that states’ top election officials bar Trump under the clause that prohibits those who “engaged in an insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution from holding higher office. None has taken that step, looking for guidance from the courts on how to interpret a clause that has only been used a handful of times since the 1860s.

While a few fringe figures have filed thinly written lawsuits in a few states citing the clause, the litigation Wednesday was the first by an organization with significant legal resources. It may lead to similar challenges in other states, holding out the potential for conflicting rulings that would require the Supreme Court to settle.

Colorado’s secretary of state, Democrat Jena Griswold, said in a statement that she hoped “this case will provide guidance to election officials on Trump’s eligibility as a candidate for office.”

The lawsuit contends the case is clear, given the attempt by then-President Trump to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden and his support for the assault of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The Republican has said he did nothing wrong in his actions.

The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, helped ensure civil rights for freed slaves — and eventually for all people in the United States. But it also was used to prevent former Confederate officials from becoming members of Congress after the Civil War and taking over the government against which they had just rebelled.

The clause cited in the lawsuit allows Congress to lift the ban, which it did in 1872 as the political will to continue to bar former Confederates dwindled. The provision was almost never used after that.

CREW and law professors of both parties contend the amendment is clear and is a qualification for president, just as the Constitution’s mandate that a candidate for the White House must be at least 35 years old and a natural born citizen.

But others note there is much unsettled about the provision and that a case involving this issue has not reached the justices in Washington.

The clause cites a wide range of offices “under the United States” and states that the provision applies to, including “presidential electors” — but not the presidency itself. There is a debate among some experts about whether Trump’s acts constitute an “insurrection” under the language of the amendment.

In its complaint, CREW asked the court to expedite the matter so it can be resolved before the state’s primary ballot is set on Jan. 5, 2024. “We understand that there’s great interest in states across this country about this question, and it needs to be resolved expeditiously so there’s clarity,” said Donald Sherman, CREW’s chief counsel, told reporters in a teleconference.

A Trump spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit.

[Matt]

The 14th amendment idea would be a disaster. I don't want Trump back in the WH, but that is a nuclear option that should be avoided.

[TC Talks]

The 14th amendment idea would be a disaster. I don't want Trump back in the WH, but that is a nuclear option that should be avoided.

The lawsuit has started the ball rolling. Let's see what happens.

[Bryce]

The 14th was written to keep civil and military officers who joined the Confederacy from holding public office.

Wouldn't Trump need to be charged and convicted of insurrection before it would apply? Not one of the counts he is facing in the four indictments come close to charging this much bandied about insurrection because even the leftist loon prosecutors know they couldn't convict.

[zzand]

Legal experts on both sides say this is a bad idea.

[TC Talks]

Yet, most things Trump is associated with involves bad ideas.

[Deleted User 15924]

Yet, most things Trump is associated with involves bad ideas.

It wouldn't be a bad idea for both sides of the aisle to get behind this, and kick Trump to the curb.

[Bryce]

Yet, most things Trump is associated with involves bad ideas.

It wouldn't be a bad idea for both sides of the aisle to get behind this, and kick Trump to the curb.

Sure sounds like more election interference to me. I thought it was of the utmost importance to let the voters decide.

[TC Talks]

Yet, most things Trump is associated with involves bad ideas.

It wouldn't be a bad idea for both sides of the aisle to get behind this, and kick Trump to the curb.

Sure sounds like more election interference to me. I thought it was of the utmost importance to let the voters decide.

Is taking someone to court election interference? What about threats and violence and all the other nonsense Trump did when that idiot couldn't get his way. This is the proper way to dispute things political.

[zzand]

Huckabee opened his show with a monologue that said basically if Trump doesn't win this election there will be violence and bullets not ballots will decide elections after that. If that doesn't wake up normal minded people then nothing will. Th Trump train needs to go the hell away.

[ZenithCKLW]

"The voters should decide."

Isn't that what this is all about? Didn't the voters already decide? And Trump (and his cronies) said, and still says, "nah, screw that." Are we supposed to let this shitslinger's behavior continue in future elections until the man dies? Are we supposed to have this fight forever?

[Taco]

I can't see how any sane person would want that idiot in the oval office again. I think that whichever way it goes, I think it will lead to chaos. His brand of politics have poisoned our country's governmental system and frankly, I don't know if we'll ever recover from it. I think the Republican's are basically giving the Democrats a gift by supporting that idiot. A large majority of American's don't want him again. Can't say the same for his cult followers.

[Deleted User 15924]

It wouldn't be a bad idea for both sides of the aisle to get behind this, and kick Trump to the curb.

Sure sounds like more election interference to me. I thought it was of the utmost importance to let the voters decide.

Well, ponder this:
Setting aside whether it would be unfair to Trump, who would have a better chance to beat Biden?
Donald or someone else we have been seeing at the GOP debates?

Myself, I really do think if Haley or Pence, or really anyone up there on that dias was the GOP nominee instead of Trump, it would be a cakewalk defeating the current president. Yet GOP leadership just can't seem to grasp this.
I truly feel that if 2024 is Trump vs. Biden, it will be just as close as it was in 2020.
Which means it's not a sure thing for the GOP. So why not screw Donald and go for the sure thing?

I'm not saying I'm right of course. Just the way I view it.

[Mega Hertz]

I'm starting to think the only way out of this is a massive coronary.

[HD74]

Pence I will vote for.
He is the only man who stood up to the former president.
That earns him a vote of confidence with me.