Judge Shuts Down Trump’s Attempt to Throw Out 14th Amendment Challenge

Gage Skidmore | Flickr.com

As higher profile stories dominate the news, Donald Trump suffered a critical legal setback regarding the 2024 election: a Colorado judge rejected his attempt to throw out a lawsuit challenging Trump’s eligibility to hold the public office.

Unless a future attempt to dismiss is successful, the challenge will proceed.

This Colorado lawsuit is one of many such challenges facing Trump, all of which seek to determine whether Section 3 of the 14th Amendment allows him to hold public office.

For context, the 14th Amendment was one of many ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War. Section 3 disqualifies insurrectionists and rebels who’d previously sworn a Constitutional oath from ever again holding public office—unless Congress votes to remove that disqualification from them.

Essentially, the argument is as follows: as President of the United States from 2017 until 2021, Donald Trump was an officer of the United States who’d sworn an oath to defend the Constitution. By inciting the January 6, 2021 insurrection—and by giving the direct participants aid and comfort—Trump is Constitutionally ineligible to hold public office again.

According to polling, a majority of Americans concur.

Though many Constitutional scholars are dubious, many others—including conservative scholars such as J. Michael Luttig, William Baude, Michael Stokes Paulsen—endorse the argument and have written extensively in its defense.

One thing that unites most experts on either side is the consensus that the United States Supreme Court should—and very likely will—adjudicate this question, ideally prior to the election itself.