A coalition of six Republicans and unaffiliated Colorado voters, including former state and federal officials, filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to disqualify former President Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s 2024 presidential ballot.
The plaintiffs are represented by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonprofit and “nonpartisan” watchdog organization, alongside law firms Tierney Lawrence Stiles LLC, KBN Law, LLC, and Olson Grimsley Kawanabe Hinchcliff & Murray LLC.
The plaintiffs are Norma Anderson, Michelle Priola, Claudine Cmarada, Krista Kafer, Kathi Wright, and Christopher Castilian.
The case argues that Trump violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which disqualifies any individual from holding federal office if they have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States.
According to the lawsuit:
Donald Trump tried to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election. Before the election, he made plans to cast doubt on and undermine confidence in our nation’s election infrastructure. After the election, he knowingly sought to subvert our Constitution and system of elections through a sustained campaign of lies. His efforts culminated on January 6, 2021, when he incited, exacerbated, and otherwise engaged in a violent insurrection at the United States Capitol by a mob who believed they were following his orders, and refused to protect the Capitol or call off the mob for nearly three hours as the attack unfolded.
Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and interfere with the peaceful transfer of power were part of an insurrection against the Constitution of the United States. Because Trump took these actions after he swore an oath to support the Constitution, Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits him from being President and from qualifying for the Colorado ballot for President in 2024…
Racism and white supremacy—the same virulent ideologies that led to the Civil War and, in its wake, the Fourteenth Amendment—pervaded Trump’s insurrection and the movement surrounding it. Ahead of January 6th, Trump and his allies directed their false claims of election fraud at cities with large Black populations, targeting and specifically identifying “urban” areas in Detroit, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Atlanta. They sought to coerce and intimidate officials in those jurisdictions to invalidate the votes of millions of Black Americans.
Former Colorado House and Senate Majority leader Norma Anderson (R) said in a statement, “Spending 19 years as a state legislator and serving in leadership gave me the opportunity to work across the aisle and to always work to protect the freedoms our Constitution has given us as citizens. I am proud to continue that work by bringing this lawsuit and ensuring the eligibility of candidates on Colorado ballots.”
Krista Kafer, a conservative columnist for the Denver Post and Republican activist, offered her stance: “As a longtime Republican who voted for him, I believe Donald Trump disqualified himself from running in 2024 by spreading lies, vilifying election workers, and fomenting an attack on the Capitol.”
“In my decade of service in the House of Representatives, I certified multiple presidential elections and saw firsthand the importance of ethics, the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power in our democracy,” former Republican member of Congress Claudine (Cmarada) Schneider. “This lawsuit is crucial to protecting and fortifying those fundamental democratic values, and I’m honored to be a part of it.”
This is not the first time that a lawsuit was filed to remove Trump from the 2024 ballot. The Gateway Pundit previously reported that a lawsuit was filed in a federal court seeking to ban President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot for inciting an insurrection.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday by Lawrence A. Caplan, alleges that Trump is constitutionally prohibited from running for president again due to his alleged involvement in the January 6 “insurrection” at the U.S. Capitol.
However, Judge Robin Rosenberg, a US District Judge for the Southern District of Florida, ruled last week that the attorney, Lawrence Caplan, lacked standing to bring the lawsuit.
“Plaintiffs lack standing to challenge Defendant’s qualifications for seeking the Presidency,” Rosenberg, an Obama appointee 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.”
The judge also said that “an individual citizen does not have standing to challenge whether another individual is qualified to hold public office.”
The Gateway Pundit also reported that Arizona Secretary of State and former cartel lawyer Adrian Fontes was reportedly questioning President Trump’s eligibility for the 2024 election in Arizona as he faces politicized indictments from the Biden Regime and upcoming trial dates.
Adrian Fontes confirmed he does not have the authority to bar Trump from the ballot.
“Now, the Arizona Supreme Court said that because there’s no statutory process in federal law to enforce Section 3 of the 14th amendment, you can’t enforce it,” Fontes said on “The Gaggle” podcast by The Arizona Republic.
“That’s what the Arizona Supreme Court said, so that’s the state of the law in Arizona. Now, do I agree with that? No, that’s stupid,” Fontes whined.
“What I’m saying is I’m going to follow the law, and the law in Arizona is what the law in Arizona is. Whether I like it or not, is irrelevant,” he said.
Meanwhile, New Hampshire’s RINO Attorney General John Formella and Secretary of State David Scanlan are also reviewing the legal theory that Trump can’t run for president.
“Both the Secretary of State’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office are aware of public discourse regarding the potential applicability of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to the upcoming presidential election cycle, including misinformation asserting or implying that the Secretary of State’s Office has already taken a position on or is seeking to take certain action with respect to Donald Trump’s candidacy for the Republican National Convention’s nomination for president in the 2024 United States Presidential Election,” according to the joint statement.
Trump has not been charged with engaging in insurrection or rebellion against the United States.
In a recent social media post, Charlie Kirk, the Founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, weighed in on the ongoing debate over former President Donald Trump’s eligibility to run for office in 2024. He suggested a countermove if Trump is removed from 2024 ballot based on 14th Amendment.
“”Legal scholars” are arguing that local elected officials at both the state and county level have the power to unilaterally remove Trump from the ballot on the basis of the 14th Amendment—WITHOUT even so much as a conviction,” Kirk wrote.
Kirk argued that if even one “radical Secretary of State or county official” attempts to remove Trump from the ballot, the right should be “equally prepared to remove Joe Biden from the ballot
“If even one radical Secretary of State or county official attempts to remove Trump from the ballot, the right must be equally prepared to remove Joe Biden from the ballot for selling out America and accepting bribes from foreign oligarchs. Remember, under their theory, no conviction is necessary. The counter move must be swift and forceful. There sure are a lot of red counties we could take off the chessboard in 2024,” Kirk added.
Professor at Harvard Law School Alan Dershowitz also weighed in and said, “It’s ABSURD. The framers of the Constitution would have never tolerated something like that.”
WATCH:
Can the 14th Amendment be used to remove Trump from the ballot? Attorney @AlanDersh tells me why he believes any attempt to do so will fail: “It’s ABSURD. The framers of the Constitution would have never tolerated something like that.” pic.twitter.com/CZujhFoBzI
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) September 6, 2023
