Democrats say that Trump backed a “coup” against the United States.
On Monday, former President Donald Trump said that the U.S. Constitution saves him from Democrats’ plans to keep him off the presidential primary votes in 2024.
Several states are trying to get Trump’s name taken off the ballots because he took part in the protests at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. His critics say that this was an uprising against the United States. Trump’s lawyers say that the First Amendment lets him say what he wants about the 2020 race.
“Petitioners never say that President Trump did anything other than speak or refuse to speak,” attorney Geoffrey Blue wrote in a Colorado court filing on Monday. “They say that he took part in the alleged insurrection, but they never say that he did anything else.”
“The Fourteenth Amendment applies to people who “acted in uprising or rebellion,” not to people who only “instigated” actions,” he said.
Sarah B. Wallace, a judge in Denver, has set Oct. 13 as the date for a hearing on the move. On Oct. 30, there will be a meeting about the constitutional problems. It will be the first time someone tries to get Trump’s name taken off the ticket in front of a judge.
Trump’s opponents say that he can’t run for president because he has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion.” This is because of a phrase in the 14th Amendment. Stephen Yagman, a civil rights lawyer and ex-convict who brought the case in California, says that Trump’s comments about January 6 and the 2020 election show that he supports an uprising of this kind.
Yagman told the Los Angeles Times earlier this month, “There is only one issue that might need to be litigated, and that is whether or not Trump took part in an insurrection or rebellion.” “I think anyone who can see the answer to that question is that he did.”
The 14th Amendment, according to some lawyers, cannot hurt Trump. Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said, “There are good faith arguments for this claim.” However, he thinks the theory is “not just dubious, but dangerous.”
“The amendment was written to punish people who actually start a rebellion that kills hundreds of thousands of people,” said Turley. “Proponents would expand the meaning of ‘insurrection or rebellion’ to include unproven claims and challenges about election fraud.”