The trial over an effort in Minnesota keep former President Donald Trump off of the 2024 ballot is scheduled to begin Thursday at the state Supreme Court as a similar case continues in Colorado.
The lawsuits in both states allege Trump should be barred from the 2024 ballot for his conduct leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. They argue Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which says no one who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” after swearing an oath to support and defend the Constitution can hold office.
A group of Minnesota voters, represented by the election reform group Free Speech for People, sued in September to remove Trump from the state ballot under the 14th Amendment provision. The petitioners include former Secretary of State Joan Grove and former Supreme Court Justice Paul H. Anderson.
The plaintiffs in the Minnesota case are asking the state’s highest court to disqualify Trump’s eligibility to appear on the ballot and for the secretary of state to bar him from the ballot for the state’s presidential primary in March.
The lawsuit doesn’t name Trump as a defendant. Instead, it names Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, who had previously rejected letters from Free Speech for People demanding him to take action. Simon has maintained that his office lacks the authority to determine a candidate’s eligibility to run for office.
“In the case of presidential candidates, the major political parties will submit names of candidates to our office for the Presidential Nomination Primary by January 2, 2024. Those submissions will appear on the ballot for the March 5, 2024 contest unless a court says otherwise,” Simon said in a statement in September.
Ron Fein, a lawyer for the plaintiffs and legal director at Free Speech for People, said at the time that the legal action was necessary because Trump “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.”
“Trump is legally barred from the ballot and election officials must follow this constitutional mandate,” Fein added.
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment on the Minnesota trial. The former president, who continues to falsley claim he won the 2020 election, has called efforts to boot him from the 2024 ballot under the 14th Amendment “nonsense” and “election interference.”
The Minnesota lawsuit was filed after another group of voters backed by the left-leaning government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a lawsuit to prohibit Trump from appearing on the ballot in Colorado. A trial in that case began earlier this week.
Similar legal challenges centered on the 14th Amendment provision were filed in other states, including New Hampshire, Arizona and Michigan.
Dareh Gregorian contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
