No matter where one stands on Donald Trump, one must agree that it is the understatement of the century to say that the saga is unprecedented in American history. The efforts to ensure that the man never sets foot in the Oval Office again are destined to become the stuff of legends and history lessons, not to mention a docudrama on Netflix or Amazon Prime.
The latest effort to ensure that nothing orange ever passes through the West Wing again (with perhaps the exception of an actual orange) involves invoking the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, specifically, Section Three:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. (Emphasis added.)
The D.C.-based group Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (CREW) has joined the fight to keep Trump off the 2024 ballot by filing a lawsuit Wednesday in the District Court in the City and County of Denver, Colo. A press release on CREW’s website states that Trump has, in fact, violated the 14th Amendment, and Crew has filed the suit on behalf of six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters.
CREW claims the plaintiffs include former local, state, and federal officials. The release states that Trump recruited, incited, and encouraged the “violent mob that attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a futile attempt to remain in office.” The piece has a quote from CREW President Noah Bookbinder:
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. 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. 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. You don’t break the glass unless there’s an emergency.
CREW has at least one such victory under its belt. According to the release, in 2023, CREW represented New Mexico residents in a successful attempt to remove county commissioner Couy Griffin. In that case, Griffin was accused of entering the Capitol on January 6. The judge ruled that the event was an insurrection and that Griffin, while not acting violently, helped to incite the insurrection. That ruling disqualified Griffin from office. The release also quoted Denver Post columnist and Republican activist Krista Kafer:
As a longtime Republican who voted for him, I believe Donald Trump disqualified himself from running in 2024 by spreading lies, vilifying election workers, and fomenting an attack on the Capitol. Those who by force and by falsehood subvert democracy are unfit to participate in it. That’s why I am part of this lawsuit to prevent an insurrectionist from appearing on Colorado’s ballot.
Steven Cheung from the Trump campaign told ABC News, “The people who are pursuing this absurd conspiracy theory and political attack on President Trump are stretching the law beyond recognition. There is no legal basis for this effort except in the minds of those who are pushing it.”
But will it work?
Breitbart notes that, on the heels of a phone campaign mounted by Charlie Kirk, New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan said he did not plan to remove any names from the state’s GOP primary ballot. His Arizona counterpart, Democrat Adrian Fontes, said that removing Trump from the ballot via the 14th Amendment is prohibited by law. A federal judge dismissed a similar suit in 2022.
However, Colorado has gone from red to blue over the years, with Denver taking on a particularly deep shade. So CREW could conceivably find itself with a victory. With so many forces aligned against Trump, one would think that this suit is nothing more than an exercise in “showboating.” A pre-game victory lap, if you will. And it is fashionable for progressives to savor the red meat being culled from the Trump camp.
Whether one has their feet firmly planted in either the MAGA or Never Trump camp, it is impossible to ignore what is happening as a result of the Left’s avarice and ambition. And given the fact that Democrats will take no prisoners in the upcoming election, one wonders why such a suit is even necessary beyond its propaganda value.
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