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Talk has been increasing lately that Donald Trump, the leading Republican Presidential candidate, could be removed from the November 2024 election. But is this even legal?
A fake story went around on social media a week ago claiming “Breaking News: FOX News reports Ca. Gov. Gavin Newsom is the first Governor to say Donald Trump is not eligible for future presidential elections & has asked the California’s State Assembly to pass a bill that will remove Trumps name on any future ballots.” While the story does appear to be false, there has been increasing talk that states could potentially remove Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot and that he could be removed using the 14th amendment.
Among the states that are speculated to be considering removing Trump from the ballot have been New Hampshire, a swing state that is at least in reach for Trump. New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan (R) has been reportedly consulting with the state attorney general to invoke the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment to keep Trump off the ballot.
A challenge was also recently filed in federal court in Florida to have Trump removed from the 2024 race under the 14th Amendment. Attorney Lawrence Caplan filed the challenge claiming Trump cannot legally be on the 2024 ballot because he “engaged in an insurrection.”
“The bottom line here is that President Trump both engaged in an insurrection and also gave aid and comfort to other individuals who were engaging in such actions, within the clear meaning of those terms as defined in Section Three of the 14th Amendment,” Caplan wrote in the filing. “Assuming that the public record to date is accurate, and we have no evidence to the contrary, Trump is no longer eligible to seek the office of the President of the United States, or of any other state of the Union” Caplan said.
Caplan argues that the facts of his case “are undeniably simple” due to Trump saying that he’ll be “right there with them”, in reference to Trump’s speech on January 6th 2021.
“As we are well aware, the throng marched on the Capitol, forced their way into the Capitol building, ransacked the rotunda area, and even made their way into several offices of representatives and senators,” he wrote.
American Lawyer and former law professor known for his work in U.S. constitutional law, as well as defending both Bill Clinton and Donald Trump during their impeachment hearings, Alan Dershowitz, is saying not so fast.
In a recent interview with Steve Bannon, host on Real America’s Voice, Dershowitz said that the Consitution “simply doesn’t permit” Trump being removed from the ballot. Dershowitz said that if the Constitution did permit a Secretary of State to remove a candidate, that means that they could just start removing candidates that they don’t like, and that attempting to remove Trump from the ballot would cause a “constitutional crisis”.
It’s important to note that Dershowitz has made clear over the years that he isn’t a Trump supporter and has endorsed both Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020.
Dershowitz also said in his interview that the 14th amendment is only about the civil war and can not be applied to today without a proper procedure to remove a presidential candidate, which he says does not exist.
Former Judge and Fox News Legal contributor, Andrew Napolitano also slammed the decision to potentially remove Trump from the 2024 ballot.
In a recent interview with Greg Kelly, host of the Greg Kelly report, Napolitano said that “this is a very dangerous area” and said that allegations can not be used to remove someone from the ballot, who hasn’t even been covicted of a crime yet. Napolitano also noted that the 14th amendment was used during the civil war and that there is no comparison to today.
