A lawsuit launched by left-leaning lawyers to keep former President Donald Trump off the Florida ballot in November 2024 was swiftly and easily dismissed by a federal judge.
According to the Palm Beach Post, Obama appointment U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg decided Boynton Beach lawyers Lawrence Caplan and two others lacked standing to file a case asserting that the 14th Amendment forbade Trump from seeking a position in the federal government.
The decision said that “Plaintiffs lack standing to challenge Defendant’s qualifications for seeking the Presidency,” while Rosenberg did not decide whether the 14th Amendment might be utilised to take Trump off the ballot in the following election.
According to her, “the injuries alleged” as a result of the incidents on January 6, 2021, “are not cognizable and not particular to them” and “an individual citizen does not have standing to challenge whether another individual is qualified to hold public office.”
The judge also highlighted other legal cases in which people were unsuccessful in preventing others who had participated in the Capitol violence on January 6 from casting ballots.
According to the Post, Caplan did not respond to the decision after it was made, although he did predict that the standing issue would be the largest challenge. Additionally, prior to the decision, Caplan asserted that Trump is no longer allowed to run for office under the Constitution even though he has not been found legally responsible for any of his actions on that day and, in fact, encouraged supporters to “peacefully” march to the Capitol to voice their concerns about the outcome of the 2020 election, just like Democrats did when Trump won in 2016.
The 14th Amendment makes it quite clear that a conviction is not necessary. You must be charged, and there must undoubtedly be justification for the accusation, according to Caplan. “I read the facts in the indictment and the amendment, and they closely match.”
The one-of-three ratified amendment 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 a member of Congress, or as a United States officer, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive, or judicial officer of any State, 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.”
Right now, it’s just a political word game between the two opposing camps; Democrats label what happened on January 6 a “insurrection,” while Republicans and some have called it a “riot.”
Other state-level initiatives, like one sponsored by Republicans in New Hampshire, are being made to keep Trump off the ballot in 2024.
Republican David Scanlan, the secretary of state, said he is speaking with Republican John Formella, the attorney general of New Hampshire, to see whether or not it is possible to remove Donald Trump from the ballot in accordance with a 14th Amendment clause.
In his capacity as secretary of state, Scanlan is in charge of organising New Hampshire’s 2024 presidential primary, which will be the first in the country.