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| AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File |
Attorneys for former President Donald Trump moved a lawsuit seeking to bar him from running again for the White House from state to federal court in the first step of what promises to be a tangled legal battle that seems destined for the U.S. Supreme Court.
The liberal group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed the initial lawsuit on Wednesday in Colorado state court, arguing a Civil War-era clause prohibiting higher office for those who once swore an oath to the Constitution and then engaged in “insurrection” prevents Trump from running in 2024.
The initial state judge in Denver assigned the case recused himself for an unspecified conflict of interest, and then Trump’s attorneys on Thursday moved the case to federal court — asserting that the matter should be adjudicated at the federal level since it raises a constitutional issue. The plaintiffs in the case will argue it should first go back to state court, but both sides anticipate that ultimately the top echelons of the federal system will have to consider the issues the lawsuit raises.
“Plaintiffs’ challenge to Colorado’s ability to place Donald Trump on the presidential ballot depends solely on the Fourteenth Amendment,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “Trump’s basis for removal of the state court action is federal question jurisdiction under Section 3 of Fourteenth Amendment.”
CREW’s case is the first of what’s expected to be many challenges filed in various states by the group and Free Speech for People, another liberal nonprofit. Activists in other states have filed lawsuits in which they represent themselves, but legal observers contend the more robust complaints by the nonprofits are more likely to end up at the nation’s highest court, which has never ruled on the clause. --->READ MORE HERE
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) warned Democrats hoping to remove former President Donald Trump from state ballots via the 14th Amendment Wednesday that doing so would set a "dangerous precedent."
Critics of the former president are attempting to remove him from the ballot in New Hampshire and Colorado, and the legal advocacy group Free Speech for People sent letters to top election officials across nine states last month asking them to keep Trump from the ballot.
"I've spoken to Republicans who are very strongly in favor of Donald Trump, and others who are very strongly in favor of other candidates — they all agree that the Democrats' step to try to remove the leading candidate of the president's opposition party from the ballot is an unprecedented assault on basic democratic customs," Cotton told Fox News.
Cotton said that if Democrats are concerned about Trump, they need to beat him next year legally and fairly, not by removing him from the ballot.
Some critics and opponents of the former president claim he violated the 14th Amendment during the January 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill. The amendment bars those who’ve taken an oath to support and uphold the Constitution from holding office again if they have “engaged in insurrection” against the United States or “given aid or comfort” to its enemies. Trump has not been convicted of insurrection or rebellion. --->READ MORE HERE
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