Lawsuits in 14 US states aim to exclude Donald Trump from the presidential race
For the second time in less than two weeks, an American state has ruled that Donald Trump violated the Constitution of the United States by inciting an insurrection on January 6, 2021 and is therefore barring him from running for president in that state should be.
Trump's Republican Party has already appealed the Colorado case to the Supreme Court, and the former American president's defense said it would do the same with regard to Maine.
Gustavo Ribeiro, a law professor at the University of Washington, said the decisions were based on the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits anyone who engages in “insurrection or rebellion” from holding public office after serving pledged allegiance to the United States.
According to Robert Pildes, a law professor at New York University, the Supreme Court must decide whether there was actually an insurrection and whether Trump was involved.
“There are many legal questions, such as assessing whether the procedures in Maine and Colorado were appropriate, whether this clause of the 14th Amendment also applies to a president. But at the end of the day, that's the question: Is Trump electable or unelectable in the 2024 election?” he asked.
The primary elections will begin in January and will determine who the party's candidate will be. Trump is clearly leading in the polls as a representative of the Republican Party and the Supreme Court will consider whether he can become a nominee on the basis of the Constitution.
1 in 1 lawsuits in 14 US states seek to declare former President Donald Trump ineligible in 2024. — Photo: Reproduction/TV Globo Lawsuits in 14 US states want to make former President Donald Trump no longer eligible for election in 2024. — Photo: Reproduction/TV Globo
“This constitutional amendment was written and put into practice 150 years ago. It has never been used again since then. There is no historical precedent,” Pildes said.
In at least 14 other states, groups of antiTrump voters have filed lawsuits seeking to remove the former president from the ballot for the Republican candidate.
They say that his participation in the invasion of the American Congress in January 2021 was an attempted coup against the state.
In practice, the measures pose a risk to Trump's new candidacy in 2024.