Lawsuit to block Trump from running for president filed in Colorado, cites 14th Amendment, ‘insurrection’

Former President Donald Trump disqualified himself from holding public office and his name should be stricken from 2024 Republican primary ballots, a lawsuit filed Wednesday in a Colorado district court argues. 

The suit, filed by the liberal nonprofit group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, cites the 14th Amendment’s “Disqualification Clause,” which bars any person who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution from holding federal or state office, as the basis for the 77-year-old’s White House ineligibility. 

“If the very fabric of our democracy is to hold, we must ensure that the Constitution is enforced and the same people who attacked our democratic system not be put in charge of it,” CREW President Noah Bookbinder said in a statement.

“We aren’t bringing this case to make a point, we’re bringing it because it is necessary to defend our republic both today and in the future.” 

The complaint was filed on behalf of six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters represented by CREW and two other law firms and specifically seeks to bar Trump from the 2024 Colorado primary ballot over his alleged role in “recruiting, inciting and encouraging a violent mob that attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021 in a futile attempt to remain in office,” according to the group.

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CREW notes that it intends to challenge the former commander in chief’s ballot access in other states as well. 

“Based on its laws, the calendar, and our courageous set of plaintiffs and witnesses, Colorado is a good venue to bring this first case, but it will not be the last,” the organization said.

The seldom-used Disqualification Clause was included in the post-Civil War 14th Amendment as a means to prevent former Confederate officials from becoming elected officials and taking over state governments and the federal government. 

Efforts by the liberal nonprofit Free Speech For People to use the 14th Amendment to prevent Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) from appearing on 2022 midterm election ballots failed last year. 

However, CREW successfully sued to remove Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin from the Otero County Commission in New Mexico after he was convicted of trespassing for entering the Capitol Building during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. The group says its case against Griffin is the only successful Disqualification Clause to be brought since 1869.

“While it is unprecedented to bring this type of case against a former president, January 6th was an unprecedented attack that is exactly the kind of event the framers of the 14th Amendment wanted to build protections in case of,” Bookbinder argued.

“You don’t break the glass unless there’s an emergency.”

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Some legal experts don’t believe that a 14th Amendment case against Trump, the 2024 GOP primary frontrunner, will hold up in court. 

“The amendment was written to deal with those who engage in an actual rebellion causing hundreds of thousands of deaths,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said earlier this month.

“Advocates would extend the reference to ‘insurrection or rebellion’ to include unsupported claims and challenges involving election fraud.”

Turley added that he views the Disqualification Clause theory as “not simply dubious but dangerous.”

“According to these advocates, Trump can be barred from the ballot without any charge, let alone a conviction, of insurrection or rebellion,” he argued.