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Citing Part 3 of the Fourteenth Modification, often known as the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause, the plaintiffs argue that Trump is constitutionally ineligible for public workplace after inciting the violent January sixth Capitol revolt.
BOSTON, MA (January 4, 2024) – Free Speech For Individuals (FSFP), together with nationally acknowledged litigator Shannon Liss-Riordan of the Massachusetts-based civil rights agency Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C., filed a problem at this time earlier than the Massachusetts Poll Regulation Fee on behalf of particular person Massachusetts voters difficult Donald Trump’s eligibility to seem on the state’s presidential major and normal election poll. The challengers are a mixture of Republican, Unbiased, and Democratic voters and embrace former Boston Mayor Kim Janey and two main legislation professors. The problem asks the Massachusetts Poll Regulation Fee to abide by Part 3 of the Fourteenth Modification and bar Trump from showing on the state poll.
Enacted within the wake of the Civil Battle, Part 3 of the Fourteenth Modification disqualifies from public workplace, no matter a previous felony conviction, any particular person who has taken an oath to uphold the U.S. Structure after which engages in revolt or insurrection in opposition to the US, or provides support or consolation to its enemies. Trump’s involvement within the violent assault on Congress to stop the certification of democratic election outcomes clearly disqualifies him from holding any future public workplace.
Beneath Massachusetts legislation, the Poll Regulation Fee “shall have jurisdiction over and render a choice on any matter referred to it, pertaining to the … constitutional {qualifications} of any nominee for … nationwide … workplace [and] the certificates of nomination or nomination papers filed in any presidential … major.”
“Donald Trump violated his oath of workplace and incited a violent revolt that attacked the U.S. Capitol, threatened the assassination of the Vice President and congressional leaders, and disrupted the peaceable switch of energy for the primary time in our nation’s historical past,” mentioned Ron Fein, Authorized Director at Free Speech For Individuals. “Our predecessors understood that oath-breaking insurrectionists will do it once more, and worse, if allowed again into energy, in order that they enacted the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause to guard the republic from individuals like Trump. Trump is legally barred from the poll and election officers should observe this constitutional mandate.”
“In the present day’s authorized motion just isn’t about partisan politics however about upholding our Structure, and that’s the reason Massachusetts voters throughout the political spectrum have joined collectively to problem Donald Trump’s wrongful placement on the Massachusetts poll,” mentioned Shannon Liss-Riordan. “As two different states have already acknowledged, Donald Trump’s instigation of and participation within the revolt three years in the past present overwhelming trigger for his disqualification from holding workplace in the US.”
On behalf of voters, Free Speech For Individuals has additionally filed authorized challenges to Trump’s eligibility to seem on the poll in Minnesota, Michigan, Oregon and Illinois. The state supreme courts of Minnesota and Michigan have dominated solely on state procedural grounds that Trump is not going to be barred from the presidential major poll however have left the door open for the challenges to be renewed for the overall election. The Oregon problem is presently pending assessment earlier than the Oregon Supreme Court docket. The Illinois objection is pending earlier than the state Board of Elections.
Each the Colorado Supreme Court docket and the Maine Secretary of State have lately issued rulings that Trump is disqualified from showing on their state ballots underneath Part 3 of the Fourteenth Modification.
Free Speech For Individuals filed related Part 3 challenges in 2022 in opposition to Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and former North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn for his or her function within the January sixth revolt. Though these challenges didn’t end in disqualification (Cawthorn’s as a result of he misplaced his major whereas the problem was pending; Greene’s as a result of the decide discovered inadequate factual proof that she, personally, had engaged within the revolt), they set vital authorized precedent that lays the groundwork for this problem, together with: that states have authorized authority to adjudicate Part 3 challenges; that state processes for adjudicating Part 3 challenges don’t violate a candidate’s constitutional rights; that no prior felony conviction is required underneath Part 3 problem; that phrases (together with “marching orders or directions to seize a selected goal, or to disrupt or impede a selected authorities continuing”) can represent participating in revolt; and that an 1872 congressional amnesty for ex-Confederates doesn’t apply to January 6.
On September 6, 2022, Decide Francis J. Matthew of New Mexico’s First District completely enjoined Otero County Commissioner and “Cowboys for Trump” founder Couy Griffin from holding workplace underneath the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause.
Free Speech For Individuals, a nationwide nonpartisan authorized advocacy group, has spearheaded the nationwide effort to “maintain insurrectionists accountable for his or her function within the violent assault on American democracy” that passed off on January sixth, 2021, beginning with the issuance in June 2021 of letters to secretaries of state and chief election officers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Together with Mi Familia Vota, the group launched TrumpIsDisqualified.org, a marketing campaign calling on Secretaries of State and prime election officers throughout the nation to observe the mandate of Part 3 of the Fourteenth Modification and completely bar Donald Trump–and all different elected officers who participated within the January sixth revolt–from any future poll.
Click on right here to learn the Objection.
To be taught extra concerning the case, click on right here.
To be taught extra about Free Speech For Individuals’s different actions underneath Part 3 of the Fourteenth Modification, click on right here.
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