A Florida attorney has filed a lawsuit to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot.
Lawrence Caplan argued that Trump is ineligible for office due to his alleged role in the Jan. 6 2021Capitol riot. Caplan pointed to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which bars individuals who have engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” against the government from holding office.
“President Trump both engaged in an insurrection and also gave aid and comfort to other individuals who were engaging in such actions, within the clear meaning of those terms as defined in Section Three of the 14th Amendment,” Caplan wrote in the filing.
“Assuming that the public record to date is accurate, and we have no evidence to the contrary, Trump is no longer eligible to seek the office of the President of the United States, or of any other state of the Union,” he added.
Caplan cited Trump’s federal indictment in Washington DC for his efforts to overturn the election as his reason for filing the lawsuit.
“It’s really common sense, based upon the facts that we know them today, regarding specifically the January 6th indictment, that Donald Trump was very much involved in the planning,” Caplan wrote. “The fact that he was indicted by a federal court for these crimes that are specifically listed in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, it’s what’s called in the law self-executing.”
“While one can certainly argue that it has not been thoroughly tested, that fact is only because we have not faced an insurrection against our federal government,” he added.
Caplan told The Hill that he is worried about what a potential second Trump term would mean for democracy.
“This is a scary, scary guy, and if he’s president, I think we’re all on the way to fascism,” he said. “There’s no law that says we have to remain a democracy forever.”
