Liberal group Free Speech For People announced on Friday that it has filed a lawsuit seeking to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the ballot in Michigan in 2024.
The group argues section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the constitution disqualifies Trump, saying his alleged involvement in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, qualifies as having engaged in an insurrection.
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“Donald Trump violated his oath of office and incited a violent insurrection that attacked the U.S. Capitol, threatened the assassination of the Vice President and congressional leaders, and disrupted the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in our nation’s history,” Ron Fein, legal director for Free Speech For People, said in a statement.
He added, “Our predecessors understood that oath-breaking insurrectionists will do it again, and worse, if allowed back into power, so they enacted the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause to protect the republic from people like Trump. Trump is legally barred from the ballot, and election officials must follow this constitutional mandate.”
The lawsuit was filed with the court of claims in Michigan and follows other challenges to Trump’s eligibility for the 2024 presidential election in other states. This challenge is the first to be filed in a critical swing state the former president would likely need to win to earn another term in the White House. Trump won Michigan in 2016 but failed to win the state in his unsuccessful reelection run in 2020.
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Disqualifying Trump from the presidential ballot in 2024 based on the 14th Amendment has been dismissed by some election officials, while other groups and officials have pushed forward with legal challenges. Trump has previously claimed 14th Amendment challenges have “no legal basis or standing” and is another “trick” to attempt to derail his presidential campaign.
Trump is the front-runner in the Republican presidential primary and holds a slight advantage over President Joe Biden in a hypothetical 2024 matchup, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.
