DENVER (AP) — Attorneys for former President Donald Trump argue that an attempt to bar him from the 2024 ballot under a rarely used “insurrection” clause of the Constitution should be dismissed as a violation of his freedom of speech.

The lawyers made the argument in a filing posted Monday by a Colorado court in the most significant of a series of challenges to Trump’s candidacy under the Civil War-era clause in the 14th Amendment. The challenges rest on Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden and his role leading up to the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

  • @DevCat@lemmy.worldOP
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    2410 months ago

    Countdown to getting this argument shot down in court in 3… 2… 1… Where does he keep finding these incompetent lawyers? They continue to use the shotgun effect, just shoot and hope you hit something. When will they start getting disbarred?

    • @geekworking@lemmy.world
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      1210 months ago

      The mountains of evidence and public statements that support his guilt don’t give the lawyers much to work with.

    • @orclev@lemmy.world
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      810 months ago

      Difference here is this isn’t a lawsuit that they’re bringing, they’re frantically trying to defend against the case brought against Trump. Having a bad defense isn’t really something you can disbar a lawyer for, unlike filing a bad lawsuit. But this is Trump we’re talking about, I’m sure he’ll find a way to get his lawyers to commit perjury or some other ethics violation before the case is over or else they’ll be replaced with lawyers who will.

        • @Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz
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          1010 months ago

          They probably hope they’re going to make a name for themselves… and then they get hired and see all the evidence they’re up against (which I’m sure is significantly more than we the public have seen).

    • BananaTrifleViolin
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      010 months ago

      Absolutely. Not being allowed to stand for office does not conflict or restrict his freedom of speech rights.

      It’s like a non us citizen saying the “natural born citizen” clause in the constitution conflicts with their right to free speech.

      • @NateNate60@lemmy.ml
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        010 months ago

        Don’t be mistaken–being disqualified from standing for election is a restriction on his right to free political speech. However, this is a permissible restriction on free speech because the constitution (Amendment XIV) deems that those who engaged in insurrection should not be able to serve in office.

        Trump’s argument is similar to arguing that slavery is legal because it says so in the original constitution…disregarding the fact that a future amendment changed that.

  • @SheDiceToday@eslemmy.es
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    1510 months ago

    So what are the actual outcomes that we might see? The courts eventually ruling that trump can’t be tossed out for insurrection until he is convicted of a crime analogous to or part of insurrection? The courts saying individual states’ electoral commissions/agencies can declare someone as an insurrectionist and block them? Or will the supreme court give their buddy a pat on the back and a treat, and say a conviction for insurrection has to be done at the federal level, if not outright declared by congress or some such stupidity?

    • @InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Ok, the 14th is dependent and enables congress to pass legislation to enforce this, and that legislation cannot be ruled unconstitutional unless its exceptionally egregious in some manner, even if it would otherwise violate their constitutional rights otherwise.

      Congress can pass a law today saying DJT and anyone affiliated cannot hold or even run for office and scotus would have to accept it (probably, they do decide what this amendment says a little).

      Section 5
      The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

      • @SheDiceToday@eslemmy.es
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        210 months ago

        So is that the only real answer (ha, real from this court… ) that should be arrived at? Perhaps a criminal conviction for the actual crime of treason would satisfy, but the only other option per the amendment is congress enforcing the article?

        • @InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          A criminal conviction would satisfy, but I think that’s because the conviction would be under usc for treason and insurrection which was passed by congress and satisfies the 14th.

          The problem is, you can’t make it too easy, or they start pointing at democrats and calling them insurrectionists for no reason.

          Anything else and scotus has to make the decision themselves.

  • @paddirn@lemmy.world
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    710 months ago

    Ahh yes, the same way the First Amendment protects you from yelling “Fire” in a theater, it can protect you from anything else you say or do in life.

  • AutoTL;DRB
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    510 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    DENVER (AP) — Attorneys for former President Donald Trump argue that an attempt to bar him from the 2024 ballot under a rarely used “insurrection” clause of the Constitution should be dismissed as a violation of his freedom of speech.

    The lawyers made the argument in a filing posted Monday by a Colorado court in the most significant of a series of challenges to Trump’s candidacy under the Civil War-era clause in the 14th Amendment.

    The former president’s lawyers also said the challenge should be dismissed because he is not yet a candidate under the meaning of Colorado election law, which they contend isn’t intended to settle constitutional disputes.

    Whatever Wallace rules, the issue is likely to reach the U.S. Supreme Court, which has never heard a case on the provision of the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868, three years after the Civil War ended.

    Prosecutors in those cases and some legal experts have noted that Trump’s offenses go beyond speech, to acts such as trying to organize slates of fake electors that Congress could have recognized to make him president again.

    On Friday, Wallace issued an order barring threats and intimidation in the case after the plaintiffs noted that Trump has targeted lawyers and witnesses in the criminal proceedings against him.


    The original article contains 518 words, the summary contains 214 words. Saved 59%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • @orclev@lemmy.world
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      610 months ago

      It is silly, but I’m pretty sure the order of the amendments doesn’t really factor in. It’s a problem if two amendments are in conflict with each other, and generally if the intent of a later amendment was to modify some aspect of a prior one, it explicitly does so by specifying what parts of the previous amendment are modified, removed, or added to (although the only time I’m aware of that that applied was when the 21st amendment repealed the 18th amendment). Generally the amendments are additive and no particular ordering is implied.