Advocacy group targets Trump
An advocacy group filed a challenge yesterday that seeks to remove former President Donald Trump’s name from the Massachusetts presidential primary and general election ballots, arguing the Republican is not Constitutionally eligible to appear because of his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Free Speech for People alongside Boston-based Attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan put the challenge before the Massachusetts Ballot Law Commission, which has the authority to hand down a decision on the statutory or constitutional qualifications of any nominee for national, state, or county office, according to state law.
The move comes after both the Colorado Supreme Court and Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows issued rulings that found Trump ineligible to appear on each state’s respective ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, a Civil War-era clause that bars from office anyone who took an oath to uphold the Constitution but engaged in an “insurrection or rebellion” against it.
Five individual voters, including former Boston Acting Mayor Kim Janey, brought the legal challenge, which asks the commission to “abide by Section 3 of the 14th Amendment and bar Trump from appearing on the state ballot,” Free Speech for People said in a statement. Liss-Riordan, in a statement provided by the organization, said two other states have already recognized that Trump’s “instigation of and participation in the insurrection three years ago provide overwhelming cause for his disqualification from holding office in the United States.”
“Today’s legal action is not about partisan politics but about upholding our Constitution, and that is why Massachusetts voters across the political spectrum have joined together to challenge Donald Trump’s wrongful placement on the Massachusetts ballot,” LissRiordan said.
In the group’s legal filing, attorneys wrote that the challenge was brought by Republican, Democrat, and unaffiliated Massachusetts registered voters who object to Trump appearing as a presidential candidate on the Republican Party presidential primary ballot.
“Trump may not appear on the presidential primary or general election ballots because, after taking the oath of office to support the Constitution, he engaged in rebellion and insurrection against the Constitution of the United States and gave aid and comfort to the enemies of the same and is therefore disqualified from the presidency (and any other public office) under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the legal filing said.
The other objectors are Bruce Chafee, a registered Republican who works in bio-pharmaceuticals; Mark Brodin, an unenrolled voter who works as a law professor at Boston College Law School; Elizabeth Bartholet, a registered Democrat who works as a law professor at Harvard Law School; and Augusta McKusick, an unenrolled voter, retired nurse practitioner, and former member of the Orleans Board of Health.
The Massachusetts Republican Party said it opposed the latest effort to remove Trump from the ballot in Massachusetts “through administrative fiat.”
“We believe that disqualification of a presidential candidate through legal maneuverings sets a dangerous precedent for democracy. Democracy demands that voters be the ultimate arbiter on suitability for office,” the MassGOP said in a statement.
Free Speech for People has also filed challenges to Trump’s eligibility to appear on the ballots in Minnesota, Michigan, Oregon, and Illinois. Michigan and Minnesota did not bar Trump from the ballot but left open the possibility of a general election challenge, according to the organization.
The Oregon challenge is pending before the state’s supreme court while the Illinois objection is before the state’s Board of Elections, Free Speech for People said. The group has previously filed similar challenges against U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and former North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn “for their role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.”