Can Trump Be Kicked Off The Ballot? 14th Amendment Debate Heats Up
Voters In Colorado File Constitutional Case That Could Make Way to Supreme Court
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If you’re like us, you’ve been staying up way too late watching the US Open. So far it’s been worth it. Three Americans are headed to semi-finals: Coco Gauff, Madison Keys and Ben Shelton.
Tonight Coco Gauff plays Karolina Muchova at 7pm ET. Madison Keys plays Aryna Sabalenka at 8:15pm ET.
Ben Shelton plays Novak Djokovic on Friday.
🍹Look for Mosheh in the US Open stands tonight sipping on a Honey Deuce, a mix of vodka, raspberry liqueur, lemonade, and skewered melon spheres.
Mosheh, Jill, & Courtney
🎙The Mo News Podcast: The world’s hottest summer ever; Hunter Biden’s upcoming indictment; Elon Musk vs. the ADL.
🗞 INSIDE THE DEBATE OVER BANNING TRUMP FROM THE BALLOT
If the polls are any indication, Donald Trump is the heavy favorite to the win the Republican nomination for president. But there are increasing efforts to prevent him from even being allowed on the ballot.
On Wednesday, six Colorado voters– with the help of a DC watchdog group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)— filed a lawsuit seeking to keep him off the state’s presidential ballots next year. It is the latest move trying to utilize the US Constitution to prevent our 45th president from also becoming our 47th president.
THE 14TH AMENDMENT
The lawsuit is based on a clause in the 14th Amendment, Section 3, which says anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution after taking an oath to defend the constitution is ineligible to hold office, unless they are granted amnesty by a two-thirds vote of Congress.
This argument is targeting Trump’s actions after the 2020 election and surrounding the insurrection on January 6th. Proponents say that Trump doesn’t even need to be convicted in the two active election interference cases for the 14th to be utilized.
It’s only been used a handful of times since the 1860s.
It was ratified in post-Civil War America when Southern states were sending men to Congress who had held prominent roles in the Confederacy.
The new lawsuit demands that Colorado’s secretary of state Jena Griswold not print Trump’s name on the Republican primary ballot.
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“We aren’t bringing this case to make a point, we’re bringing it because it is necessary to defend our republic both today and in the future…January 6th was an unprecedented attack that is exactly the kind of event the framers of the 14th Amendment wanted to build protections in case of.”
CREW President Noah Bookbinder
WHAT DO THE LEGAL EXPERTS SAY?
The theory has been gaining traction among liberals, as well as some legal experts on the right, since two prominent conservative law professors, William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen, wrote “The Sweep and Force of Section Three” last month.
In the 126-page article, they write:
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We believe that any disinterested observer who witnessed that bloody assault on the temple of our democracy, and anyone who learns about the many failed schemes to bloodlessly overturn the election before that, would have to come to the same conclusion.
J. Michael Luttig and Laurence H. Tribe
WHAT’S NEXT?
Jena Griswold, the Colorado secretary of state, who happens to be a Democrat and very critical of Trump’s actions on Jan 6, said the 14th amendment has been a hot topic among several secretaries of state. Colorado is not alone.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) recently told MSNBC he is considering disqualifying Trump from the ballot in his state.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) also said recently that “arguments for disqualification are quite strong.”
New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan (R) is also discussing whether to boot Trump from his state’s first in the nation primary.
However, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), who received an infamous call from Trump (now part of a criminal indictment) to find enough votes to overturn the 2020 election, is pushing back. He argues that he doesn’t have the authority to kick Trump off the ballot in his state, and voters should be the final arbiters.
Meanwhile, CREW, which filed the Colorado case, said it expects to file more cases in other states.
IT’S STILL A LONG SHOT
Trump’s campaign would likely appeal any ruling that he was ineligible, and a final decision could rest with the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, and includes three justices appointed by Trump himself.
Trump has called the effort to keep him off the ballot “election interference.” Campaign spokesperson Steven Chung says: "The people who are pursuing this absurd conspiracy theory and political attack on President Trump are stretching the law beyond recognition much like the political prosecutors in New York, Georgia, and DC. There is no legal basis for this effort."
✔︎ Mo News Reality Check: Trump is far and away the frontrunner in the Republican field at this point. A new CNN poll shows Trump with 52% of Republican primary voters and GOP-leaning independents. DeSantis is at 18%. No other candidate is in double digits.
So far, his four criminal cases— which include accusations he hoarded classified documents and impeded efforts to retrieve them, tried to overturn the 2020 election, and made hush money payments to a porn star— have only made him more popular with likely Republican voters. They all go to trial in the next year, but even convictions wont block him from the ballot.
So perhaps the 14th amendment is the only thing standing in the way of him winning the GOP nomination. The question now is whether federal judges will agree or instead allow voters to reach their own verdicts next year.
⏳ SPEED READ
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🗓 ON THIS DAY: SEPT 7
1813: The United States gets its nickname, Uncle Sam. The name is linked to Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, New York, who supplied barrels of beef to the United States Army during the War of 1812. Wilson (stamped the barrels with “U.S.” for United States, but soldiers began referring to the grub as “Uncle Sam’s.” The local newspaper published a story about him on September 7 that helped tell the “Uncle Sam” story.
1979: The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) launches.
1983: Madonna releases her song, ‘Holiday.’
1987: Michael Jackson releases ‘Bad.’
1996: Tupac Shakur was shot several times in Las Vegas, Nevada, after attending a boxing match. Although Shakur’s killer was never identified, some believe Orlando Anderson, a member of the LA Southside Crips gang, was responsible.