Politics

Federal Judge Tosses Trump 2024 Ballot Lawsuit In Rhode Island

(Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Font Size:

A Rhode Island federal judge tossed another challenge to former President Donald Trump’s eligibility for the 2024 ballot on Monday.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr., an Obama appointee, dismissed a 14th Amendment challenge to listing Trump on the Rhode Island ballot. John Anthony Castro, a little-known 2024 Republican presidential candidate, filed the lawsuit, along with several more in other states.

The Supreme Court declined in October to hear Castro’s appeal in his case filed in Florida. The First Circuit Court of Appeals found last week that Castro lacked standing to bring his New Hampshire lawsuit.

Castro’s lawsuits allege Trump is ineligible to hold office under section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which restricts officials who took an oath to the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” from holding office. He argues that he will lose potential voters and support if Trump remains a candidate. (RELATED: Supreme Court Deals Blow To Effort To Keep Trump Off The Ballot)

Former President Donald Trump speaks to a crowd of supporters at the Fort Dodge Senior High School on November 18, 2023. (Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump speaks to a crowd of supporters at the Fort Dodge Senior High School on November 18, 2023. (Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

McConnell made his decision in light of the reasons laid out in the First Circuit’s opinion, which found that Castro was not “a direct and current competitor” of Trump at the time of filing his complaint.

“Accordingly, it follows that he has not shown that, as of that time, he had satisfied the injury-in fact component of the standing inquiry,” the court ruled.

“The American people have the unassailable right to vote for the candidate of their choosing at the ballot box, something the Democrats and their allies driving these cases clearly disagree with,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. “President Trump believes the American voters, not the courts, should decide who wins next year’s elections and we urge a swift dismissal of all such remaining bogus ballot challenges.”

Courts have now rejected similar ballot challenges in Colorado, New Hampshire, Minnesota and Michigan. In a case brought by the left-wing donor backed group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a state judge in Colorado ruled Nov. 17 that Trump had “engaged in an insurrection on January 6, 2021 through incitement” but determined that section three did not apply to him because he is not an “officer of the United States.”

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.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel