Trump on 2024 Bid: “I Can’t Be Barred from Running for President” – Lawyers Challenge Election Restrictions

William FurneyOct 16, 2023

Minute Read

Former US president Donald Trump cannot be prevented from running for the White House again, his lawyers have claimed, in a case that seeks to stop Trump from standing in the 2024 election.

Court Filing

Lawyers for Trump said in a filing in Colorado, where the case is being heard, that “Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment does not prohibit someone from running for office. It prohibits someone from holding office, and even then, only if Congress chooses not to lift the prohibition.”

CREW Action

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonprofit and nonpartisan group, filed the lawsuit, saying Trump’s behavior after the 2020 presidential election that led to deadly riots should disqualify him from seeking the presidency ever again. It is one of a number of such lawsuits filed around the United States.

2020 Election Controversy

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Trump was seeking re-election in the 2020 presidential election but lost to Joe Biden, in a result he said was “rigged” and that the election “stolen”. Trump used social media to urge his followers to gather at the US Capitol in Washington in January 2021 and protest. Rioting broke out and five people were killed.

14th Amendment

Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution deals with disqualification from holding office. It states: “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 an officer of the United States, 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. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”

‘Irrelevant Lawsuit’: Trump

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But Trump and his lawyers say the Colorado case seeking to stop him from running is premature and may even be irrelevant. That’s because neither the Republican nor the Democratic parties have yet selected their candidates for the 2024 presidential election. Technically, they argue, Trump is not yet running, even if he is actively campaigning for the White House.

Indictment Woes

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Trump and others, including former legal advisor Rudy Giuliani, have been indicted on federal charges of working to overturn the results of the 2020 election and also preventing the peaceful transfer of power to the winner of the ballot. The defendants face up to 20 years in jail if convicted in a trial that’s certain to captivate the nation.

Trump’s ‘Right to Free Speech’

In a motion filed in Denver District Court, Trump’s lawyers argue that their client should not be punished for merely speaking his mind.

“Petitioners want to punish President Trump for speaking about his belief that the 2020 election was marred by fraud and by Democrats’ manipulation of the process to stack the deck against him. “It is his right to make those claims, even if he is wrong. Petitioners cannot be permitted to strip him of his right to challenge their anti-free speech and anti-civil liberties lawsuit…”

Section 3 ‘Doesn’t Cover the President’

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Trump’s legal team also asserted that Section 3 of the Constitution doesn’t apply to the president of the United States, because it doesn’t mention the office.

“Section Three does not apply to President Trump,” says the filing. “Section Three disqualifies a person from holding office only if he ‘previously [took] an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State…’ Because President Trump was never a congressman, state legislator, or state officer, Section Three applies only if he was an ‘officer of the United States.’ But as that term was used in Section Three, it did not cover the President.”

‘Expanded Language’

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The filing continues: “If they wanted to include the president in the reach of Section Three, they could have done so by expanding the language of which type of oath would bring an ‘officer’ under the strictures of Section Three. They did not do so, and no number of semantical arguments will change this simple fact. As such, Section Three does not apply to President Trump.”

Trump Leading the Republican Pack

Trump is far ahead of his rivals in seeking the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential race, with polls consistently placing him between 50-60% of people who say they would vote for him.

DeSantis Polling Plunge

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By comparison, Trump’s main competitor in the nomination contest, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, is no longer looking like much of a challenger, after he slid down the polls by around 30 points to the approximate 10% where he’s languishing now.