US Supreme Court rejects Trump disqualification case

A long-shot candidate from Texas tried to have the former president barred from seeking re-election over stance on “insurrection”

The US Supreme Court has rejected an attempt by a Texas Republican to prevent former President Donald Trump from seeking office again in 2024 over his alleged role in the January 6, 2021 riot on Capitol Hill.

The case was dismissed without any comment by the court on Monday. It had been brought by Texas-based tax consultant John Anthony Castro, who claimed in a Florida court that the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment – which prohibits those who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or “given aid or comfort” to insurrectionists from holding office – bars Trump from contesting the 2024 presidential election.

Castro claimed that Trump’s statements of support for the rioters who disrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory on Capitol Hill in January 2021 amounted to a violation of this provision.

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The case was dismissed by the Florida court and made its way to the Supreme Court after an unsuccessful appeal at the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Georgia.

Castro is currently seeking the Republican Party’s nomination for next year’s election, although he is little-known and his name rarely features on any polls. 

His legal argument is shared by several groups of Democratic activists who are currently attempting to keep Trump’s name off ballots in their states by invoking the 14th Amendment. Cases have been filed in Colorado, Michigan, and Minnesota, with the Colorado and Minnesota cases set to go to trial in the coming months.

Although Trump is facing dozens of criminal charges in four separate state and federal cases, he has not been charged with insurrection. Moreover, while the January 6 protest has been termed an “insurrection” by liberal politicians and pundits, none of the thousand-plus participants who were charged in relation to the demonstration have been indicted for rebellion or insurrection, which would require the Justice Department to prove that they had gone to the Capitol with the intent of overthrowing the government.