Free Speech For People and Our Revolution are asking the nation’s secretaries of state to declare that they will ban Trump from the ballot.
Jason Easley reports, Secretaries Of State Nationwide Asked To Ban Trump From The Ballot:
The groups announced their effort in a statement provided to PolticusUSA:
The nonprofit, nonpartisan legal advocacy group Free Speech For People and the grassroots advocacy group Our Revolution are calling on secretaries of state across the country to follow the mandate of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and sign a declaration that former president Donald Trump is barred from running for any future public office based on his incitement of an insurrection on January 6, 2021.
Enacted in the wake of the Civil War, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment disqualifies any individual who has taken an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and then engages in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or gives aid or comfort to those who have, from holding future public office.
The declaration, prepared by Free Speech For People, carefully details why Donald Trump is constitutionally barred from appearing as a candidate on future ballots. The declaration includes citations to case law affirming the role state election officials have in determining a candidate’s constitutional eligibility, relevant facts of the events leading up to and including the insurrection on January 6, and legal analysis of the definition of “insurrection” and “engage.”
The declaration states in part, “On January 20, 2017, Trump swore an oath to support the Constitution as an officer of the United States, i.e., as president. The events of January 6, 2021, constituted an “insurrection” within the meaning of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment, and Trump “engaged” in that insurrection within the meaning of Section Three. Consequently, he is disqualified from holding “any office” under the United States—including the presidency. As a result, he is ineligible to appear on the presidential primary ballot.”
One of the big bombshells from the most recent 1/6 Committee hearing is that Trump secretly planned to tell his supporters to march to the Capitol. Trump hid his plan from the United States government because he was afraid that the government would act to stop him.
There is little debate that Donald Trump tried to stage a coup, and for this reason alone, he should be banned from appearing on the presidential primary ballot in 2024.
This is part of the THE 14POINT3 CAMPAIGN:
On January 6, 2021, former President Donald Trump incited hundreds of violent insurrectionists to storm the Capitol in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and other elected officials aided or gave comfort to the insurrectionists. As a result, five people died and more than 140 officers were injured in a seditious attack that shook our democracy to its core. Now, Trump is preparing to run for president again in 2024, holding rallies across the country to activate his base.
However, Trump’s incitement of the January 6th insurrection makes him ineligible for any future run for office.
Initially enacted in the wake of the Civil War, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment disqualifies from public office any individual who has taken an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and then engages in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or gives aid or comfort to those who have. By inciting a violent attack on Congress in an effort to prevent the certification of his own electoral defeat, Donald Trump engaged in insurrection and violated his oath of office.
Free Speech For People and Our Revolution are partnering to urge Secretaries of State and chief election officials across the country to follow the mandate of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment and bar insurrectionists from any future ballot.
Free Speech For People will argue its appeal from GQP Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s decision to allow Coup Potter co-conspirator Rep. Marjorie “Q” Green on the ballot, and failing to disqualify her under section 3 of the 14rh Amendment.
In the absence of any overt law enforcement action by DOJ to hold insurrections in Congress accountable, groups like @FSFP are stepping into the breech & fighting to DISQUALIFY insurrectionists from returning to Congress & continuing to try to destroy democracy from within. https://t.co/ssqFMbEtch
— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) July 14, 2022
WATCH: This coming Monday, July 18, at 9:30 am ET, our appeal on behalf of Georgia voters in our 14.3 challenge to Rep. Greene will be heard before the Fulton County Superior Court. You can watch it live. See details via the link below. @FSFP https://t.co/qGVUpUPHHH
— John Bonifaz (@JohnBonifaz) July 14, 2022
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Constitutional law scholar Alan B. Morrison, associate dean at George Washington University Law School, said Sunday that the Democratic Party should “sue right now” to block another Donald Trump presidential candidacy, using the 14th Amendment ban on insurrectionist officeholders from taking power again.
“Democrats should use 14th Amendment insurrection clause to keep Trump off the ballot in 2024”, https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/3562637-democrats-should-use-14th-amendment-insurrection-clause-to-keep-trump-off-the-ballot-in-2024/
After the testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, is there any doubt that Donald Trump fomented the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021?
There are no longer any innocent explanations for what he did that day. Select Committee testimony has demonstrated that he knew he had no good factual or legal basis for his claim that the election was stolen, that he knew Vice President Mike Pence was not going to save him and that his only chance to remain in the White House was to stop the final ratification by Congress on Jan. 6. The testimony has also demonstrated that he knew some in the crowd assembled to hear him speak were armed, that a mob was heading to the Capitol, and that it was clearly in his power to call off the insurrection — but instead of trying to stop the violence, he chose to do nothing.
The question is: Can anything be done, short of a criminal conviction, to prevent Trump from seeking to recapture the presidency?
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment disqualifies a person from being president who, while holding a federal office, participated in an insurrection against the United States.
That prohibition must surely apply to Donald Trump, and that is what the House sought to establish in Trump’s second impeachment; however, because the impeachment trial was held before a full investigation of the insurrection charge had taken place, much of the most damning evidence uncovered by the Select Committee was not available. Thus, while the House will not get a second chance, there are other means of achieving Trump’s disqualification, although they have never been tested in a court before now.
Whether President Biden runs in 2024, it is certain that there will be a Democrat on the ballot, and thus the Democratic Party, on behalf of all of its candidates, could bring suit in federal court right now, seeking a ruling that Donald Trump participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection and an order precluding him from even being a candidate for president.
Trump would first have to decide whether to fight the lawsuit, which would mean saying whether he was running in 2024, something he would prefer to announce at a time and place of his choosing, not when and where he is sued.
After making some procedural motions in an effort to have the case dismissed, the former president would then have to respond to discovery, including being subjected to a deposition in which he would have to answer questions under oath. Unlike the situation with the Select Committee, he would have no arguable claims of presidential privilege, so that if he refused to answer questions, the court could draw adverse inferences against him from his refusals, meaning he could no longer argue that his conduct was justified if he would not provide a factual basis for his repeated assertions that the election was stolen. Moreover, if the suit were filed now, there would be plenty of time for discovery, a trial, and an appeal before the primaries start in early 2024.
Like every other American, Trump would have the option of claiming the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. That path would be rather awkward for any candidate for public office, but especially for him in light of what he said during the 2016 campaign about employing that tactic: “The mob takes the Fifth … If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”
Unlike most laws, section 3 provides a special means to avoid disqualification, which the Democrats might like as much as the trial: Two thirds of each House can vote to grant him amnesty — that would require Republican Senators and Representatives to go on the record on whether Trump should be entitled to be a candidate for president, despite having been found to have been part of the insurrection.
Will this lawsuit succeed? No one can know for sure, but it seems as if there is nothing to lose, or at least not if the Department of Justice does not indict Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection.