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'Trump Is Ineligible': Top Election Officials Urged to Bar Former President From Ballot
"The enforcement of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment against Trump will ensure that our republic is protected and that this insurrectionist-in-chief is forever disqualified from holding any future public office," said the president of Free Speech for People.
Aug 30, 2023
Two pro-democracy groups that have long argued that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars former President Donald Trump from running for election wrote to officials in five states, calling on them to keep the Republican's name off ballots in 2024 despite his decision to campaign amid his numerous legal battles.
Free Speech for People (FSFP) and Mi Familia Vota Education Fund (MFVEF) told New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan, New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, and members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission that by inciting the January 6, 2021 insurrection, Trump violated Section 3, also known as the insurrectionist disqualification clause.
The clause was enacted after the Civil War and disqualifies an individual from holding public office if they have taken an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and then engaged in an insurrection against the United States.
"Since 1868, the qualifications for eligibility for the presidency—in addition to natural-born citizenship, age, and residency—have also included not having engaged in insurrection against the United States after having taken an oath to support the Constitution," the letters read. "And Trump does not meet that qualification."
The Constitution makes clear that "Trump is ineligible to appear on the presidential primary ballot," said FSFP.
FSFP and MFVEF have led efforts in recent months to ensure that Trump is barred from appearing on election ballots in 2024. As the former president has been indicted at the federal level for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and, separately, for working with at least 18 other people to try to overturn the results in Georgia, the groups have written to election officials in 10 other states with the same message they sent Wednesday.
"While the U.S. 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," said John Bonifaz, president of FSFP.
"Criminal prosecutions will establish Trump's liability under the law," Bonifaz added. "But the enforcement of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment against Trump will ensure that our republic is protected and that this insurrectionist-in-chief is forever disqualified from holding any future public office."
In New Hampshire, the message reached Scanlan before the groups sent their letters to him on Wednesday. The secretary of state asked state Attorney General John Formella earlier this week to review "the legal issues involved" in potentially barring Trump from appearing on election ballots.
FSFP forwarded their letter to Formella on Wednesday.
Scanlan made the request of Formella's office after two conservative legal scholars noted in a paper that "several of the people involved in [the insurrection]—most notably the defeated president, Donald Trump—had previously taken oaths to support the Constitution."
"If they engaged in or gave aid and comfort to an insurrection against the constitutional government," they argued, "Section 3 would appear to bar them from holding office again."
Irving Zavaleta, national programs manager of MFVEF, said that Scanlan and other secretaries of state and election officials across the U.S. "are well within their authority to bar former President Donald Trump from the ballot."
"Trump is disqualified," Zavaleta said, "and we strongly urge election officials to bar him from the ballot."
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State Officials Told to 'Carry Out Their Duty' by Keeping Trump Off 2024 Ballot
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution "is clear that anyone who takes an oath of office and then engages in insurrection is forever barred from holding public office again," said one campaigner.
Jul 12, 2023
As part of a campaign to keep former President Donald Trump from serving in public office again because he incited a deadly insurrection, a pair of advocacy groups on Wednesday sent letters to election officials in nine key states.
After responding to his 2020 loss with the "Big Lie" that the election was stolen, Trump is seeking the GOP presidential nomination for 2024—and is leading the polls. This, despite a section of the 14th Amendment barring from office anyone who has taken an oath to support the U.S. Constitution and then "engaged in insurrection or rebellion."
"The evidence is overwhelming that Donald Trump incited and mobilized the insurrection on January 6, 2021 at our nation's Capitol," said Alexandra Flores-Quilty, campaign director at Free Speech for People (FSFP). "The U.S. Constitution is clear that anyone who takes an oath of office and then engages in insurrection is forever barred from holding public office again. Election officials must carry out their duty, follow this constitutional mandate, and bar Trump from the ballot."
Echoing their April letter to Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, FSFP and Mi Familia Vota Education Fund on Wednesday asked secretaries of state and election officials to exclude the twice-impeached former president from future ballots—and highlighted that the 14th Amendment "does not require that Congress, a court, or anyone else, adjudicate the question of Mr. Trump's ineligibility."
The new letters were sent to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, New York State Board of Elections Co-Chairs Peter Kosinski and Douglas Kellner, Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade, Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt, and members of the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
"Secretaries of state and state election officials are well within their authority to bar former President Donald Trump from the ballot. We all know that Donald Trump incited an insurrection to stop the certification of the 2020 election," said Mi Familia Vota national programs manager Irving Zavaleta. "Trump is disqualified."
As Common Dreams reported last Friday, the groups' renewed calls for action from state election officials coincide with the 155th anniversary of the 14th Amendment's ratification. In addition to the letters, they have organized events in key states.
Since being voted out of office, Trump has faced two historic indictments: In April, the Manhattan district attorney charged him with 34 felony counts stemming from alleged hush money payments during the 2016 election cycle, and last month, Trump and his aide Walt Nauta were hit with dozens of federal charges in a classified documents case.
The latter is being led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, whom U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed last year after Trump launched his 2024 campaign. Smith is also responsible for investigating Trump's role in the insurrection—which could result in more charges.
"While the U.S. 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," declared FSFP president John Bonifaz.
"Criminal prosecutions will establish Trump's liability under the law," Bonifaz added. "But the enforcement of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment against Trump will ensure that our republic is protected and that this insurrectionist-in-chief is forever disqualified from holding any future public office."
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'Trump Is Disqualified': Activists Aim to Keep Insurrectionist Off Ballot in Key States
"Failing to hold him responsible not only violates the Constitution, but it also sets a dangerous precedent for permitting violent attacks on our democracy," said the Free Speech for People campaign director.
Jul 07, 2023
A pair of advocacy organizations that have long argued former President Donald Trump's incitement of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol legally disqualifies him from holding office again plan to make that case with a week of rallies and banner drops beginning on Sunday.
Free Speech for People and Mi Familia Vota are among various groups and legal scholars that cite Section 3 of the 14th Amendment—which bars from office anyone who has taken an oath to support the U.S. Constitution and then "engaged in insurrection or rebellion"—to assert that Trump and some congressional Republicans can't serve in government because of the Capitol attack.
The two groups are now organizing events outside secretary of state offices in California, Colorado, Georgia, and Oregon "to make sure that they are taking a stand by disqualifying Trump in those spaces, which is something that the secretary of state can do," Mi Familia Vota executive director Héctor Sánchez toldThe Hill.
The activists also focused on Nevada, and recently sent a related letter to Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar. The upcoming events are set to coincide with the 155th anniversary of the amendment's ratification on Sunday.
"Trump is responsible for the January 6th insurrection, plain and simple."
"Trump is responsible for the January 6th insurrection, plain and simple," said Alexandra Flores-Quilty, campaign director at Free Speech for People. "Failing to hold him responsible not only violates the Constitution, but it also sets a dangerous precedent for permitting violent attacks on our democracy. That's not a risk we can afford to take."
While disqualifying Trump—who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination for 2024—from any ballot would be unprecedented, "we had a number of meetings with secretaries of state and we have had this discussion," said Sánchez. "So it's a real possibility."
Plans for the demonstrations come as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), another group that has long charged that Trump can't run again because of the 14th Amendment, highlighted seven past disqualifications in a Friday report.
The individuals identified by CREW include Couy Griffin, a New Mexico man ordered by a court to step down as Otero County commissioner last year after participating in the 2021 insurrection; Victor L. Berger, a Wisconsin congressman convicted under the Espionage Act whom Congress refused to seat in 1919; A.F. Gregory, a local postmaster removed by the postmaster general in 1871; and J.D. Watkins, who was disqualified from serving as a state judge in Louisiana in 1869.
Additionally, as CREW found from digging through historical records, William L. Tate, Zebulon B. Vance, and Kenneth H. Worthy—all of North Carolina—were respectively disqualified from serving as state solicitor, U.S. senator, and county sheriff in the 1860s and 1870s because they had held political positions in the Confederacy or joined its army.
As CREW noted:
Historical precedent also confirms that a criminal conviction is not required for an individual to be disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. No one who has been formally disqualified under Section 3 was charged under the criminal "rebellion or insurrection" statute (18 U.S.C. § 2383) or its predecessors. This fact is consistent with Section 3's text, legislative history, and precedent, all of which make clear that a criminal conviction for any offense is not required for disqualification. Section 3 is not a criminal penalty, but rather is a qualification for holding public office in the United States that can be and has been enforced through civil lawsuits in state courts, among other means.
The precedent likewise confirms that one can "engage" in insurrection without personally committing violent acts. Neither Kenneth Worthy nor Couy Griffin [was] accused of engaging in violence, yet both were ruled to be disqualified because they knowingly and voluntarily aided violent insurrections.
Although Trump has not yet been criminally charged for the Capitol attack, it is still possible he could face charges as a result of an ongoing investigation by Special Counsel Jack Smith, whom U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed last year after the twice-impeached former president formally announced his 2024 campaign.
Smith is also leading a probe into Trump's handling of classified documents, which last month resulted in 38 federal charges against the ex-president and his aide Walt Nauta. The indictment came after the Manhattan district attorney in April charged Trump with 34 felony counts involving alleged hush money payments during the 2016 election cycle.
Despite his legal trouble, 77-year-old Trump continues to dominate polls among the crowded field of Republican candidates. Although he has some longshot primary challengers, the 80-year-old Democratic incumbent, President Joe Biden, is seeking reelection and expected to face the GOP nominee next year.
This post has been updated with the Nevada letter.
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