Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys fired back at attempts by Democrats and a few RINO Republicans to keep him off the 2024 presidential ballot in certain states. Leftist critics cite Section 3 of the 14th Amendment as their justification.
This post-Civil War era amendment prohibits those who engaged in insurrection against the federal government from holding office.
Trump’s legal team asserted that Democrats who base their arguments on this strategy are in error. In fact, the Constitution protects the former president from their attacks.
So said attorney Geoffrey Blue, who explained his reasoning in a Monday court filing in Colorado. “At no time do Petitioners argue that President Trump did anything other than engage in either speaking or refusing to speak for their argument that he engaged in the purported insurrection.”
Blue asserted that the 14th Amendment applies only to a person who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion.” It does not extend to a person accused of merely instigating such an act.
First Amendment protects Trump in case aimed at keeping him off Colorado ballot, attorneys sayhttps://t.co/NakP1umdD0 pic.twitter.com/kZpYmu2VKF
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) September 26, 2023
Of course, Section 3 was included for former members of the Confederacy in the aftermath of the Civil War.
One would be hard-pressed to find an expert outside of a Democratic zealot who believes that this amendment applies to Trump. But that’s exactly the case some are making, especially in Colorado.
A supposed watchdog group called “Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) recently filed suit to keep Trump off the 2024 GOP presidential primary ballot in the state. This came as he increased his already insurmountable lead after a string of Democratic indictments.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called the attempt to push the former president off the Colorado ballot using the 14th Amendment nothing more than an “absurd conspiracy theory.”
He compared Trump’s critics to the political prosecutors in New York City, Georgia and Washington, D.C.
Cheung declared Democrats “are stretching the law beyond recognition.” He added that there is no legal foundation for this effort except in their own minds.
The Constitution does not specify how the clause is to be enforced, and it has only been used twice since the late 1800s. Both times were against former Confederates.
What is clear to reasonable observers is that Democrats greatly fear a rematch of 2020. Irregularities will be closely scrutinized, and it will be much more difficult to convince Americans that the unpopular President Joe Biden hauled in 81 million votes.
