Group Files Suit to Keep Trump Off Ballot Under 14th Amendment
Charlie Kirk Staff
09/07/2023

Another group has filed a lawsuit to keep former President Donald Trump off the ballot in Colorado, citing ‘ineligibility’ under the 14th Amendment.
The legal move comes a day after an Obama-appointed federal judge ruled favorably for Trump in a 14th Amendment-related case.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a lawsuit in state court in Denver claiming Trump is guilty of mounting an “insurrection” on Jan. 6. 2021, in an effort to stop the peaceful transfer of power. The suit was filed on behalf of six Republican and unaffiliated voters who do not want Trump included as a candidate on the state’s 2024 primary and presidential ballots.
“The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare that Trump, the current frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination, is disqualified for public office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment and therefore constitutionally ineligible to appear on any Colorado ballot. They also want the court to block Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold from taking any action that would allow Trump access to the ballot,” reported CBS News.
“Four years after taking an oath to ‘preserve, protect and defend’ the Constitution as President of the United States, Trump tried to overthrow the results of the 2020 election, leading to a violent insurrection at the United States Capitol to stop the lawful transfer of power to his successor,” says the 115-page lawsuit.
“By instigating this unprecedented assault on the American constitutional order, Trump violated his oath and disqualified himself under the Fourteenth Amendment from holding public office, including the Office of the President,” the lawsuit claims.
Section 3 of the post-Civil War amendment, which was ratified in 1868, says “no person shall be a senator or representative in Congress” or “hold any office, civil or military,” if they have “engaged in insurrection, or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
Notably, the provision doesn’t say the person has to be convicted of insurrection, only charged with it. But there has never been a court ruling on the matter, though that may be about to change. The U.S. Supreme Court may weigh in on the matter.
In a statement on Tuesday, the nation’s highest court said it would consider whether to take the case, John Castro v. Donald Trump, during the justices’ Sept. 26 conference, with a final decision on whether to take the case coming by Oct. 9.
“Castro, a Texas tax attorney, claims that Trump participated in an insurrection against the U.S. government by organizing his rally against certification of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021. He is a declared candidate for the Republican nomination and has previously run for various offices. Castro ran for his first race in 2004 as a Democrat. He is currently running as a write-in candidate,” the site 1945 reported.
Castro’s initial lawsuit to stop Trump was tossed out by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in June; she is the judge appointed by Trump to oversee his classified documents case filed by special counsel Jack Smith.
“The decision by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida dismissing Petitioner John Anthony Castro’s civil action on the grounds that he lacks constitutional standing to sue another candidate who is allegedly unqualified to hold public office in the United States pursuant to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the candidate wrote in his Writ of Certiorari to the high court.