BATON ROUGE, La. (WVUE) - A Chalmette woman has filed a petition objecting to the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump and seeking an injunction to disqualify him from the Louisiana primary ballot next March.
Ashley Reeb filed the lawsuit against outgoing Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, asking that Ardoin be compelled to disqualify Trump from the state’s ballot because of the former president’s role in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Both Trump’s actions (engaging in insurrection) as well as his inaction (giving aid and comfort to insurrectionists) on Jan. 6, 2021, disqualify him from holding any office of/under the United States,” the petition asserts.
Reeb filed for the injunction on Dec. 22 in the 19th Judicial District Court in East Baton Rouge Parish. She confirmed her role in filing the suit but declined further comment to Fox 8.
As the petitioner, Reeb asserts that Trump should be disqualified from seeking a second term in the White House, based upon Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.
That provision states: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrections or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
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A similar challenge to Trump’s eligibility, citing the same Constitutional argument, recently succeeded in Colorado.
That state’s Supreme Court on Dec. 19 removed Trump from the ballot on a 4-3 vote from its justices, who wrote, “We do not reach these conclusions lightly. We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”
The Colorado decision has been stayed through Jan. 4. Trump’s campaign has given notice it intends to appeal the Colorado decision before the US Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday (Dec. 27) rejected a similar effort to remove Trump from the ballot in that state.
“Significantly, Colorado’s election laws differ from Michigan’s laws in a material way that is directly relevant to why the appellants in this case are not entitled to the relief they seek concerning the presidential primary election in Michigan,” Justice Elizabeth Welch wrote Wednesday, explaining the court’s decision not to take up the case.
Disqualification lawsuits relating to Trump’s appearance on the ballot are pending in other states, including Texas, Nevada and Wisconsin.
Dillard University political analyst Robert Collins described Reeb’s petition as “a very long shot.”
“It might be a different situation if he had been criminally convicted in a court of law of insurrection,” Collins said.
In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot, the House of Representatives impeached Trump and he faces a federal indictment for his role in attempting to subvert the election results Congress was certifying that day.
The Republican-controlled Senate voted to acquit Trump, and he has not been convicted of criminal wrongdoing.
“To make an interpretation that a president had engaged in insurrection, and to remove him from the ballot, I think most judges ideologically are just not there,” Collins said.
LSU political science professor James Stoner agreed that the lack of a conviction likely undermines the petition.
“The whole meaning of the rule of law is that a prosecutor can’t just jail you because he thinks you’ve done something wrong,” Stoner said. “That’s only the first step. The prosecutor makes the charge and then it has to go to trial. That’s what happened with the Trump impeachment. The impeachment is a prosecution, but he was not convicted of those offenses.”
Collins said the situation could change, based on how the US Supreme Court handles the Colorado case.
“If the Supreme Court upholds the Colorado case, it’s open season for these filings, and you’re going to see one in every state,” Collins said.
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