Democrat operatives who go by the name of the ‘Civil rights organizations Free Speech for People and Mi Familia Vota Education Fund’ are urging election officials across the US to ban President Donald Trump from appearing on their 2024 ballots under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.
The group’s website claims that Trump is ineligible to run and appear on 2024 ballots because of “his role in inciting, encouraging, and supporting the January 6th insurrection.”
The organization is now beginning a week of rallies outside the secretary of state offices in California, Oregon, Colorado, and Georgia, The Hill reports.
The 14th Amendment Section 3 reads:
“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath . . . as an officer of the United States . . . to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
In a letter to Nevada Secretary of State Francisco V. Aguilar, the organizations claimed that “states can enforce Section 3 without any new federal legislation–just as they regularly enforce other constitutional provisions and other sections of the Fourteenth Amendment itself.”
They add:
“Section 3 does not require that Congress, a court, or anyone else, adjudicate the question of Mr. Trump’s ineligibility before you may decide his eligibility for the ballot.”
The campaign director for Free Speech For People, Alexandra Flores-Quilty, said in a declaration, “Secretaries of State have a duty to ensure that candidates who seek to appear on their state ballots meet the constitutional qualifications for serving in public office.”
She continued:
“We are urging them to follow the Constitution and declare that Donald Trump is barred from ever again holding public office, as is required under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.”
“We’re really focusing on Nevada and California and [Oregon, Colorado, and Georgia] to make sure that they are taking a stand by disqualifying Trump in those spaces, which is something that the secretary of state can do,” executive director of Mi Familia Vota Héctor Sánchez, told the Hill.
The enactment of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was to prevent those who fought for the Confederacy from holding public office during the Civil War.
The House of Representatives impeached Trump in the past, saying, “His actions to incite violence against his own government and against the entire Congress warrants removal from office.”
Trump is also facing a “witch hunt” spearheaded by Special Counsel Jack Smith, which the former president says is “all bulls**t.”
The indictment, handed down last month, alleges Trump willfully retained classified documents and obstructed efforts to retrieve them.
The 45th president pleaded not guilty to all counts.
Trump took aim at Smith’s “witch hunt” against him while noting his soaring poll numbers.
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There is a fair chance that the Secretaries of State in the four named states will do this, leaving it up to the courts to sort out. If the case drags out long enough it may impact the election process.