Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign faces a new threat after New York lawmakers filed a complaint in the New York Supreme Court Tuesday night in an attempt to kick the former president off of the state's primary election ballot.
Trump, the GOP frontrunner in the upcoming general election, has already been kicked off the ballot in Colorado and Maine. The Colorado Supreme Court was the first to rule that Trump was ineligible to run for office under the 14th Amendment in December 2023. Maine's Democratic Secretary of State Shenna Bellows followed suit later that month, citing the 14th Amendment as well. Trump's campaign called the Colorado court's ruling "completely flawed" and Bellows' decision a "hostile assault on American democracy."
The 14th Amendment states that anyone found to be involved in an insurrection cannot hold federal office again. Colorado and Maine determined that Trump's actions surrounding the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, amounted to engaging in insurrection.
On that fateful day, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., to stop the certification of Joe Biden's election win, following claims from the then-president that the election was stolen from him via widespread voter fraud, despite there being no evidence of election fraud. Meanwhile, Trump has denied taking part in an insurrection.
In Tuesday's filing from New York State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, New York City Council member Shekar Krishnan, and another petitioner named Gertrude Fitelson, the 14th Amendment and Trump's role in the Capitol riot was also cited as the reason that he should be barred from the ballot.
The filing comes the same day that the New York Board of Election determined that Trump would be on the Republican primary ballot in April.
"Donald J. Trump engaged in that insurrection through his personal actions before and on January 6, 2021, including without limitation summoning a crowd to come to Washington D.C. on January 6th and telling the crowd, which he knew was armed, to march to the Capitol and 'fight like hell' under 'very different rules,'" the complainant stated.
The petitioners also cited Colorado's decision to bar the former president from its ballot, writing in the filing, "Pursuant to Article IV of the U.S. Constitution, the courts of the State of New York must give full faith and credit to the judicial proceedings of the State of Colorado. Therefore, this Board is required to adopt the judgment of the Colorado Supreme Court that Donald J. Trump is ineligible to serve as President of the United States."
"Allowing Trump to remain on the ballot would flagrantly disregard the plain text of the constitution and the historic record surrounding the 14th amendment," Holyman-Sigal told Newsweek via telephone on Wednesday. "In our constitutional system, no person is above the law, not even would-be tyrants like Trump."
"Giving him a free pass from the consequences of his insurrection will only embolden his efforts to overturn elections. Others who may seek the same through insurrection will be heartened. It will encourage political violence and potentially usher in a dictatorship."
Krishnan told Newsweek via email on Wednesday: "Donald Trump is plainly disqualified from holding public office under the 14th Amendment. Allowing him to remain on the ballot would undermine the rules of our democracy, and would be an insult to voters. Even worse it would encourage the type of extremist violence that we saw on January 6, 2021."
Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign and the petitioners' lawyers via email for comment.
In a joint statement with council member Krishnan on Tuesday, Hoylman-Sigal said, "The Board of Elections can still uphold the United States Constitution by sustaining our objection and disqualifying Donald Trump from the presidential ballot...Should the Board of Elections fail to do their duty and rule Trump ineligible, I will see them in court."
"The decision by New York State's Board of Elections to allow Donald Trump to appear on the Republican primary ballot is a misreading of the U.S. Constitution...The Constitution he [Trump] swore to uphold renders him ineligible for public office," Krishnan said in the statement.
Trump appealed the Colorado Supreme Court's ruling on his ballot eligibility to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear arguments on the former president's ballot eligibility on Thursday.
When asked about Thursday's hearing, Hoylman-Sigal told Newsweek, "I hope they hue to their status as originalists and look at the plain language and history of the text. It would be the height of hypocrisy if suddenly conservative justices show a contextual approach toward interpreting the constitution."
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