Donald Trump is being attacked on all sides as we approach the next presidential election, but Team Trump just scored a major win. A judge just shut down a bold attempt to stop Trump, delivering a yuge victory to him and his supporters.
A motion called for Donald Trump to be removed from the presidential ballot for the state of Wyoming in 2024 on the grounds that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution makes it impossible for him to serve a second term in the White House. On Thursday, this motion was rejected by Judge Misha Westby of the District Court for Albany County.
The case was “dismissed without prejudice” by Judge Westby. A conservative attorney named Harmeet Dhillon posted two pages from the ruling on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the following message: “Not again! Yes again…Wyoming federal judge threw yet another 14th amendment challenge out on its ear today. Bye!”
Not again! Yes again … Wyoming federal judge threw yet another 14th amendment challenge out on its ear today. Bye!
Congratulations and thanks to my @dhillonlaw colleagues and our local counsel for riding this one out of town on a rail. pic.twitter.com/BnaxrgL3uR
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) January 5, 2024
Polling suggests that Donald Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 by a significant margin. On the basis of the 14th Amendment, Trump has already been taken from the primary ballots in the states of Colorado and Maine. However, his team is appealing both decisions to the Supreme Court.
In the event that one of the rulings is upheld by the Supreme Court, it would immediately throw the Republican presidential primary campaign into further disarray. This is a move that has never been seen before in modern American history.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment states that anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion,” having previously sworn an oath to “support the Constitution of the United States” is ineligible to hold “any office, civil or military” in the country. The detractors of Donald Trump say that his purported attempt to change the results of the presidential election in 2020, which included his alleged role in the storming of Congress on January 6, constituted an insurrection.
This would mean that he is unable to serve as president again. Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign stated that they do not agree with this reasoning. The allegation is “stretching the law beyond recognition,” according to the campaign, which has stated that it has no validity “except in the minds of those who are pushing it.”
Here’s my question to enforce section 3… does there not need to be a section 1 and 4th amendment uhm Due Process of Law. Find him guilty in court of law of the “insurrection” then he’d be DQ’d up til then he’s innocent til proven guilty.
— Michael VanGilder MS, AT, ATC (@VanGilder_AT) January 5, 2024
A retired attorney named Tim Newcomb filed the case against President Trump and Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from the state of Wyoming who refused to certify Joe Biden’s election victory, on November 1, 2023. The legal action aimed to “preclude the names of Mr. Trump and Ms. Lummis from appearing on Wyoming ballots…and award reasonable attorney fees and costs incurred in prosecuting this action.”
In a decision that was handed down on December 19, the Colorado Supreme Court stated that Trump’s conduct around January 6, 2021 “constituted overt, voluntary, and direct participation in the insurrection.” This interpretation led to the conclusion that Trump is not eligible to be included on the primary ballot for the state. A few days later, the same decision was made by Shenna Bellows, the Secretary of State for the state of Maine, who is a Democrat. She came to the conclusion that Trump “used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol to prevent certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power.”
The actions prompted a response from Steven Cheung, who is a spokesperson for the Trump campaign. He stated, “Make no mistake, these partisan election interference efforts are a hostile assault on American democracy. Biden and the Democrats simply do not trust the American voter in a free and fair election and are now relying on the force of government institutions to protect their grip on power.”
Trump’s legal team has filed appeals to the Supreme Court in both the Colorado and Maine cases, though they have yet to be heard. During an appearance on MSNBC, Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney and legal analyst for the network, questioned whether the conservative-dominated court would decide the case “on the merits” if it did decide to rule on it, implying that the court could have a bias and instead seek an “off-ramp,” allowing Trump to remain on the ballot.
