Left-wing activists are investigating legal options to keep Donald Trump off the 2024 Presidential ballot. Anti-Trump groups believe they can use the 14th Amendment to the Constitution to prevent the former President from re-entering the White House.
Democrat officials from across several states are concerned about handling potential legal questions, including Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes. The Democrat expects the ballot contents to be fought over in court and worries about timing as his state needs to know precisely who will be on the ballot paper by December.
New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan feels similarly. He faced a flurry of calls from the public when people heard that the state was working to remove Trump from the ballot. Scanlan denies any plot, but like Fontes, he expects courtroom challenges.
The 14th Amendment prevents anyone engaged or involved in “insurrection” from running for the highest office in the land. GOP contender and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said he believes Donald Trump qualifies for expulsion from the ballot under the terms of the Amendment and repeated his claim during the opening GOP primary debate in Milwaukee.
While Arizona and New Hampshire officials expect future lawsuits, one is already underway in Florida. An attorney in the south of the Sunshine State filed a lawsuit in August, arguing that the 14th Amendment is applicable and should disqualify Trump from the White House.
“President Trump’s efforts both in Washington, as well as Georgia and perhaps other states, as well as the consequential assault on the US Capitol, make him ineligible to ever serve in federal office again,” Lawrence Caplan’s lawsuit reads.
He added that Trump both engaged in insurrection and supported others who did the same. Some legal experts, however, say the leftists’ plans won’t work because they misunderstand the intention of the 14th Amendment. This was written just after the Civil War and was intended to bar Confederate military leaders from occupying the White House.
