- The liberal group Free Speech for People sent letters to secretaries of state in key states claiming that former President Donald Trump should be barred from the ballot via alleged violation of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, according to a Wednesday press release.
- The group argued that Trump’s alleged involvement in Jan. 6 prevents him from holding future office, but legal experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation that they disagree.
- “Moreover, Donald Trump has never been convicted of ‘insurrection or rebellion’ by any court and not by Congress either in the impeachment proceedings that were attempted against him. These attempts to disqualify him from the ballot are unconstitutional,” Hans von Spakovsky, manager at the Election Law Reform Initiative, told the DCNF.
A Democratic-aligned group is seeking to bar former President Donald Trump from the ballot in key states through the 14th Amendment, according to a Wednesday press release.
Free Speech For People is arguing that Trump violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment due to alleged incitement of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and should be disqualified from running for a second term, according to a press release. The group has encouraged the secretaries of state in New Hampshire, New Mexico, Florida and Ohio, as well as election commission members in Wisconsin, to remove the former president from the ballot in 2024.
“While the US Justice Department, along with state and local authorities, must hold Donald Trump accountable for all crimes that he has committed, secretaries of state and chief election officials across the country must carry out their responsibility to follow the mandate of the Constitution and the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause and bar Trump from any future ballot,” Free Speech For People President John Bonifaz said in a statement.
The liberal organization claims that Trump violated Section 3, the Disqualification Clause, in that he “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof” after taking an oath of office to abide by the Constitution, the letters read. (RELATED: ‘Get A Conviction Before The Election’: Legal Experts Weigh In On Georgia Trump Indictment)
Free Speech For People previously sent similar letters to election officials in 10 other states between April and July 2023 — Nevada, Oregon, California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania, according to the press release.
BREAKING: Today, we @FSFP + @MiFamiliaVota issued letters to the chief election officials of five more states (FL, NH, NM, OH, and WI) making clear that they must enforce the constitutional mandate of 14.3 and bar Trump from the ballot. https://t.co/x03mpZlF8F
— John Bonifaz (@JohnBonifaz) August 30, 2023
Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative and Senior Legal Fellow for The Heritage Foundation, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the novel legal argument “is not a valid claim,” citing a paper he wrote last year.
“Section 3 of the 14th Amendment is no longer in effect because Congress passed two amnesty acts in 1872 and 1898 as it is allowed to do under that Section to remove the disabilities imposed by Section 3,” Spakovsky said. “Moreover, Donald Trump has never been convicted of ‘insurrection or rebellion’ by any court and not by Congress either in the impeachment proceedings that were attempted against him. These attempts to disqualify him from the ballot are unconstitutional.”
Trump isn’t charged with insurrection or inciting the riot on Jan. 6 in the two indictments that involve alleged interference in the 2020 election, in Washington, D.C. by Special Counsel Jack Smith and in Georgia by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, William A. Jacobson, Cornell Law School professor and founder of EqualProtect.org, told the DCNF.
“The Second Impeachment of Trump by the House of Representatives did charge him with inciting insurrection, but he was not found guilty by the Senate. Empowering state or local officials on their own to make a determination of what constitutes insurrection would wreak havoc on our constitutional presidential electoral system, amounting to the undermining of elections that gave rise to claims of ‘insurrection’ against Trump,” Jacobson said.
“What would stop local Republican officials from determining on their own that Joe Biden’s refusal to enforce our southern border amounts to an ‘insurrection’ against the United States? We would be faced with a free-for-all in which the constitutional system of presidential elections is undermined by local political power,” he added.
The argument that Trump should be barred from the ballot per the 14th Amendment has gained momentum across several other battleground states like Arizona, Michigan and Georgia, whose secretaries of states are fielding questions from their constituencies about the legal theory, according to The New York Times. In New Hampshire, the state GOP has come out against the effort and committed to challenging such an argument against Trump or any other 2024 presidential candidate who has qualified for the ballot.
“Joe Biden, Democrats, and Never Trumpers are scared to death because they see polls showing President Trump winning in the general election,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told the DCNF. “The people who are pursuing this absurd conspiracy theory and political attack on President Trump are stretching the law beyond recognition much like the political prosecutors in New York, Georgia, and DC. There is no legal basis for this effort except in the deranged minds of those who are pushing it.”
The RealClearPolitics (RCP) average for a 2024 national Republican primary, based on polls conducted between Aug. 17 and Aug. 29, indicates the former president is leading the crowded field by over 40 points, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with 13.5%, conservative businessman Vivek Ramaswamy with 7.3% and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley with 4.9%. Former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott received 4.6%, 2.5% and 2.4%, respectively, with all other GOP hopefuls garnering less than 1% support.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include a statement from the Trump campaign.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.