Activist group Free Speech for People (FSFP) has filed another lawsuit challenging former President Donald Trump’s eligibility as a candidate, this time in Massachusetts.
They are representing five local voters of Republican, Independent, and Democrat affiliation, including former Boston Mayor Kim Janey.
“Today’s legal action is not about partisan politics but about upholding our Constitution, and that is why Massachusetts voters across the political spectrum have joined together to challenge Donald Trump’s wrongful placement on the Massachusetts ballot,” stated Shannon Liss-Riordan.
Attorneys for President Trump say there have been at least 60 such challenges filed across the country.
The group has since lodged official challenges in Minnesota and Michigan, where the cases were dismissed, and in Oregon and Illinois.
State laws governing elections and the ability to challenge candidate eligibility vary.
In Massachusetts, the Ballot Law Commission has jurisdiction to “render a decision on any matter referred to it.”
The challenges allege that President Trump may not appear on either the presidential primary or general election ballots due to disqualification under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
Once a little-known provision in the Constitution, Section 3 has gained nationwide recognition recently after news of President Trump’s disqualification from the ballot in Colorado.
The ruling came with several conditions, however, and the removal never went into effect. A similar situation occurred in Maine.
The legal theory hinges on the fact that Jan. 6, 2021, was an “insurrection,” which has yet to be proven in court or even charged in the thousand-plus Jan. 6-related cases the Department of Justice has already brought forth.
The bulk of the Massachusetts objection details the events of and leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, described as an insurrection, and urges the state secretary to take the Colorado and Maine disqualification rulings into account.
Previously, John Anthony Castro had filed a similar challenge against President Trump in federal court in Massachusetts before filing a notice of voluntary dismissal of his case.
Disqualification Decisions
State rulings on Section 3 challenges to President Trump’s eligibility are not binding on each other.While several jurisdictions have dismissed these cases for a wide range of reasons, the Colorado Supreme Court and later the Maine Secretary of State issued surprise rulings that President Trump was disqualified, without actually striking him from the ballot.
In Colorado, a district court had originally ruled that President Trump had engaged in an “insurrection” through his actions leading up to and on Jan. 6, but found that Section 3 did not apply to presidents and ordered Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold to add President Trump to the Republican primary ballot.
The ruling was appealed by all parties, and the Colorado Supreme Court overturned the lower court order by ordering the secretary to remove President Trump if their ruling was not appealed, while affirming the finding that Jan. 6 was an “insurrection.”
The removal order had been stayed until Jan. 4, only to go into effect if there was no appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Colorado GOP and President Trump separately filed petitions for immediate review with the high court, which has not yet accepted the cases.
The Maine decision came after the Colorado ruling.
Maine Secretary of State Shanna Bellows held a public hearing on Dec. 15 after three challenges were lodged, and later requested additional briefings from all parties when the Colorado Supreme Court handed down its order.
She subsequently decided that President Trump had engaged in “insurrection” and was therefore disqualified, but stayed her order to not go into effect if the decision was appealed to the Superior Court within five days.
As it stands, the dismissal of one case in any jurisdiction would not necessarily prevent another voter or group from filing a similar challenge in the same state. Several states have heard or have pending multiple such challenges.
