Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Claiming Trump Can’t Hold Office After Insurrection; Judge Dismisses 14th Amendment Lawsuit Against Trump, Rules Plaintiffs Lack Standing.

AP Photo/Chuck Burton

Judge dismisses lawsuit claiming Trump can’t hold office after insurrection:

A federal judge has dismissed a suit brought by a Florida tax attorney attempting to disqualify former President Donald Trump from running for reelection on the basis of fomenting an insurrection in 2020.

Judge Robin L. Rosenberg, an Obama appointee, said the lawyer did not have a specific legal injury to bring the federal lawsuit over claims concerning the 14th Amendment’s bar on individuals who led an insurrection from holding office.

“Plaintiffs lack standing to challenge defendant’s qualifications for seeking the presidency, as the injuries alleged are not cognizable and not particular to them,” the judge wrote.

Lawrence Caplan of Boynton Beach argued in a federal court filing with the Southern District of Florida that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution prevents someone from holding power in the U.S. government if that individual has rebelled against the government through an insurrection or aided its enemies.

In his filing, Mr. Caplan refers to it as the “disqualification clause” and says it can operate independently of criminal proceedings. But he noted that special counsel Jack Smith has indicted Mr. Trump over the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and allegedly attempting to undermine the 2020 election.

The legal filing also noted Georgia prosecutors have charged the ex-president and his allies with election interference, among other allegations. --->READ MORE HERE

Alex Brandon/AP

Judge dismisses 14th Amendment lawsuit against Trump, rules plaintiffs lack standing:

A federal court judge in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit challenging Donald Trump's 2024 presidential candidacy under the 14th Amendment.

The lawsuit, filed a week ago, questioned Trump's ability to appear on the Florida presidential primary ballot next year, owing to his alleged role in the Jan. 6 violence at the U.S. Capitol.

In her swift dismissal of the case, Judge Robin Rosenberg, who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, did not determine the 14th Amendment's applicability in Trump's case. Instead, Rosenberg ruled that the plaintiffs, Boynton Beach attorney Lawrence Caplan and two others, lacked "standing" to bring the challenge.

"Plaintiffs lack standing to challenge Defendant’s qualifications for seeking the Presidency," Rosenberg wrote, adding that "the injuries alleged" from the insurrection on Capitol Hill more than two years ago "are not cognizable and not particular to them."

Rosenberg also added that "an individual citizen does not have standing to challenge whether another individualis qualified to hold public office." She noted two prior court rulings against plaintiffs trying to keep candidates off the ballot because they participated in the Jan. 6 violence in Washington, D.C.

Caplan did not comment on the judge's ruling Thursday. But in an Aug. 25 interview with the USA TODAY-Florida network, Caplan said he believed his lawsuit would most likely be challenged on the issue of standing, perhaps because he was not, say, a candidate who could argue direct harm.

But he insisted in that interview that it didn't require profound knowledge of the U.S. Constitution to see why Trump is ineligible in light of Jan. 6. --->READ MORE HERE

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