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insurrection clause
Judge Disqualifies Trump From Illinois Ballot, Citing Jan 6 Role
The decision comes ahead of a highly anticipated U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a Colorado challenge to the 2024 GOP front-runner's candidacy based on the 14th Amendment's insurrection clause.
Feb 28, 2024
An Illinois judge ruled Wednesday that former U.S. President Donald Trump cannot appear on the state's presidential primary and general election ballots because of his role in the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection.
Judge Tracie Porter of the State Circuit Court in Cook County sided with Illinois voters who asserted that Trump—the 2024 GOP front-runner—must be disqualified from Illinois' March 19 primary and November 5 general election ballots due to his violation of the 14th Amendment's so-called "insurrection clause."
Porter, a Democrat, placed a stay on her ruling if Trump appeals by Thursday, or if the U.S. Supreme Court issues a highly anticipated ruling in a Colorado case involving a 14th Amendment challenge.
"This is a historic victory," said Ron Fein, legal director of Free Speech for People, the co-lead counsel in the case. "Every court or official that has addressed the merits of Trump's constitutional eligibility has found that he engaged in insurrection after taking the oath of office and is therefore disqualified from the presidency."
Enacted after the Civil War, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars from public office any "officer of the United States" who has taken an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution but then participates in an insurrection or rebellion against the country. The text does not require a criminal conviction for the clause to apply.
Plaintiffs' attorney Caryn Lederer called the ruling "a critical decision that is adding to decisions in Colorado and Maine on this point."
Last month, a Maine judge deferred a ruling on yet another insurrection clause challenge, citing the Supreme Court's Colorado case.
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump's campaign, said that "today, an activist Democrat judge in Illinois summarily overruled the state's Board of Elections and contradicted earlier decisions from dozens of other state and federal jurisdictions."
"This is an unconstitutional ruling that we will quickly appeal," he added.
According to The New York Times, courts in at least 18 states have dismissed or rejected efforts to exclude Trump from the ballot on 14th Amendment grounds, while unresolved challenges remain in 15 states.
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Voters Request Expedited SCOTUS Review of Colorado Trump Case
"The critical question of Donald Trump's eligibility—given his incitement of insurrection—should be resolved before primary voters cast their ballots," said a watchdog group involved in the legal battle.
Dec 28, 2023
After the Colorado Republican Party asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a ruling that removed former President Donald Trump from the state GOP's 2024 primary ballot, the legal team for voters behind the initial case requested a swift decision.
The legal battle was launched in September by the government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and law firms representing six GOP and unaffiliated Colorado voters, who argued that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution disqualifies Trump from holding office again because he incited the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
The Colorado Supreme Court last week overturned a lower court's decision and threw Trump off the state's primary ballot but also paused its ruling until January 4, to give the nation's highest court—which includes three Trump appointees—time to weigh in. Hoping the high court's right-wing majority will reverse the Colorado decision, the state party on Wednesday asked the justices to review and rule on the case by Super Tuesday, which is March 5, 2024, or if that's not possible, by the end of the current term.
The voters' legal representatives responded on Thursday with their own motion requesting a decision by February 11, explaining that "Colorado votes almost exclusively by mail" and clerks must mail ballots to many residents starting February 12.
One of the voters' attorneys, Sean Grimsley of Olson Grimsley Kawanabe Hinchcliff & Murray, said in a statement that "the ruling issued by the Colorado Supreme Court affirmed our clients' argument: Donald Trump engaged in insurrection after taking an oath to support the Constitution and is consequently disqualified from serving as president and barred from Colorado primary ballots."
"The Colorado Supreme Court's decision was well-rooted in the text and historical context of the 14th Amendment and they correctly applied those principles to the facts of this case," he continued. "The Colorado Republican Party's appeal of our clients' case will address an issue of exceptional national importance—whether, as the Colorado Supreme Court found, a former president, and current candidate for office, who has engaged in insurrection against the Constitution is disqualified from holding office again."
"We have filed a motion asking the United States Supreme Court to expedite their consideration of the Colorado Republican Party's appeal and any subsequent review on the issues so that the important question of Trump's eligibility can be resolved before nearly all primary voters cast their ballots," he added.
As Politico reported Thursday:
The state GOP's petition argues three points: The office of the presidency is not covered by the 14th Amendment, the insurrection clause is not "self-executing"—meaning Congress alone must enforce it, and states cannot make that determination on their own—and that by kicking Trump off the primary ballot, the state Republican Party's First Amendment rights of association have been violated.
The party is represented by the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative Christian law group. Jay Sekulow, who defended Trump during his first impeachment trial, is the organization's chief counsel.
Colorado is the first state where Trump—the GOP's 2024 front-runner—has been barred from the primary ballot but it's not the only one where voters and advocacy groups, backed by legal scholars across the ideological spectrum, are challenging his eligibility. Free Speech for People (FSFP) is leading similar legal challenges in Michigan and Minnesota.
The Minnesota Supreme Court dismissed the case last month while the Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday let stand a lower court ruling that the secretary of state lacks the legal authority to remove Trump from the ballot.
"We are disappointed by the Michigan Supreme Court's decision," said FSFP legal director Ron Fein. "The ruling conflicts with longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent that makes clear that when political parties use the election machinery of the state to select, via the primary process, their candidates for the general election, they must comply with all constitutional requirements in that process."
"However, the Michigan Supreme Court did not rule out that the question of Donald Trump's disqualification for engaging in insurrection against the U.S. Constitution may be resolved at a later stage," he added. "The decision isn't binding on any court outside Michigan and we continue our current and planned legal actions in other states to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment against Donald Trump."
The owner of Minocqua Brewing Company, Kirk Bangstad, on Thursday filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission seeking to remove Trump from the state's primary ballot, citing the 14th Amendment. The WEC refused to hear the complaint.
"It's pivotal that someone at least try in Wisconsin to do this," Bangstad told local reporters, vowing that "If WEC, and they will deny our complaint, we will sue in Dane County."
Meanwhile, in Maine, Democratic Secretary of State Shenna Bellows on Thursday barred Trump from the state's primary ballot.
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Colorado Judge Says Trump 'Incited' Jan 6 Attack—But Keeps Him on Ballot
"Today was not the end of this effort, but another step along the way," said CREW president Noah Bookbinder, who vowed to appeal the technicality-based ruling.
Nov 18, 2023
A Colorado judge on Friday ruled that former U.S. President Donald Trump "engaged in insurrection" on January 6, 2021 but allowed him to remain on the state's 2024 presidential ballot due to a disupted technicality that critics hope will be reversed on appeal.
Judge Sarah Wallace's 102-page ruling states that Trump's January 6 speech near the White House "incited imminent lawless
violence."
"Trump did so explicitly by telling the crowd repeatedly to 'fight' and to 'fight like hell,' to 'walk down to the Capitol,' and that they needed to take back our country' through 'strength,'" she wrote. "He did so implicitly by encouraging the crowd that they could play by 'very different rules' because of the supposed fraudulent election."
Wallace continued:
In the context of the speech as a whole, as well as the broader context of Trump's efforts to inflame his supporters through outright lies of voter fraud in the weeks leading up to January 6, 2021 and his longstanding pattern of encouraging political violence among his supporters, the court finds that the call to 'fight' and 'fight like hell' was intended as, and was understood by a portion of the crowd as, a call to arms.
The court further finds, based on the testimony and documentary evidence presented, that Trump's conduct and words were the factual cause of, and a substantial contributing factor to, the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol.
The advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and two law firms representing a group of Colorado voters had argued in their suit that "Trump is constitutionally ineligible to assume the office of the president" because he "knowingly and voluntarily aided and incited the insurrection" before and on January 6.
Enacted after the Civil War, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment—known as the insurrection clause—bars from public office any "officer of the United States" who takes an oath to uphold the Constitution and subsequently participates in an insurrection or rebellion against the U.S. government.
Wallace found that Trump, who was still president at the time, was not "an officer of the United States," and therefore could not be proscribed from holding office under the insurrection clause. This, despite citing examples in her ruling of times when the president has been considered an "officer."
Legal experts said that the technicality could be overturned on appeal. Former U.S. Defense Department special counsel Ryan Goodman wrote on social media that Trump "shouldn't be comfortable" with Wallace's decision.
CREW president Noah Bookbinder said in a statement that "when we filed this case, we knew it likely would not end at the district court level."
"We will be filing an appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court shortly," he added. "Today was not the end of this effort, but another step along the way."
Wallace's decision follows a Tuesday ruling in a Michigan 14th Amendment case in which the judge declined to address Trump's conduct while arguing that only Congress can decide whether a presidential candidate fails to meet constitutional qualifications for office, and last week's dismissal of a similar case in Minnesota.
In closing arguments in the Colorado case, Scott Gessler, an attorney for Trump—who is far and away the frontrunner in the GOP presidential primary race—argued there is "an emerging consensus here within the judiciary across the United States."
However as Ron Fein, legal director at the advocacy group Free Speech for People, noted after the Minnesota ruling, the state Supreme Court "explicitly recognized that the question of Donald Trump's disqualification for engaging in insurrection against the U.S. Constitution may be resolved at a later stage."
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