WASHINGTON (ChurchMilitant.com) – The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a case seeking to disqualify President Donald Trump from 2024 election ballots.
John Anthony Castro
The high court decided on Monday not to accept John Anthony Castro’s challenge to have the former president removed from New Hampshire’s ballots next fall.
Castro, who is also running for the U.S. presidency in 2024 as a Republican, claimed Trump should be disqualified based on a particular interpretation of the 14th Amendment.
According to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, no person holding public office, “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
Castro alleges Trump should not be allowed to run for the Oval Office due to the so-called insurrection that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021.
Outside of New Hampshire, Castro has filed lawsuits “in multiple states, including Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.” He will reportedly also file lawsuits in Massachusetts and other states.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung commented in September, “The people who are pursuing this absurd conspiracy theory and political attack on President Trump are stretching the law beyond recognition, much like the political prosecutors in New York, Georgia and D.C.” He added, “There is no legal basis for this effort except in the minds of those who are pushing it.”
Retired Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz wrote that the co-opted interpretation of the 14th Amendment by those seeking to derail Trump’s campaign is incorrect. “A fair reading of the text and history of the 14th Amendment makes it relatively clear, however, that the disability provision was intended to apply to those who served the Confederacy during the Civil War,” Dershowitz penned. “It wasn’t intended as a general provision empowering one party to disqualify the leading candidate of the other party in any future elections.”
The Supreme Court will not partake in this current challenge to Trump’s eligibility, but several states are considering avenues to keep the former president off the ballot, which could result in future action from the high court.