A petition calling for former President Donald Trump to be disqualified from holding office under the insurrection clause in the U.S. Constitution has amassed more than half a million signatures.
The petition was launched by MoveOn, a progressive public policy advocacy group, in December 2022.
The petition calls on election officials nationwide to remove Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, from state ballots for the 2024 election under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. The clause prohibits those who "engaged in insurrection" from holding office.
"The Constitution's 14th Amendment provides for the disqualification from office of any person who has 'engaged in insurrection or rebellion against' the United States," the petition states. "That includes Donald Trump. As a result, he does not meet the qualifications to become president again."
The petition adds that election officials in every state "must respect the Constitution and reject Trump from their ballots. And Congress can help clarify that by passing legislation to bar Trump from office under the Fourteenth Amendment."
It gained traction last summer after Trump was indicted on felony charges over attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The petition amassed some 480,000 signatures by Tuesday morning, but that total soon surged past 500,000 signatures. As of early Wednesday, the total stood at 504,455 signatures.
Colorado's Supreme Court removed Trump from the ballot for the state's primary on March 5 after determining that Trump incited the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump's lawyers have argued that Trump did not engage in insurrection and that the presidency is not covered by the amendment. The Supreme Court has scheduled a special session on Thursday to hear arguments over whether Trump is ineligible to be president again and can be kept off the ballot.
The nation's highest court has never ruled on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was adopted after the Civil War to prevent former officeholders who "engaged in insurrection" from reclaiming power.
If the court upholds Colorado's decision, it would allow Colorado, Maine and other states to keep Trump off the ballot and imperil his bid to reclaim the White House in 2024.
"As MoveOn has said many times before, Donald Trump is a danger to our freedoms and democracy," MoveOn Political Action Chief Communications Officer Joel Payne told Newsweek on Tuesday.
The Colorado Supreme Court's decision to remove Trump from the state's primary ballot under the 14th Amendment "proves that there are consequences for betraying our country," Payne said.
"MoveOn and its members have been on the frontlines calling for Trump's disqualification for inciting an insurrection, and we will continue to hold Trump and the MAGA extremists that remain in the halls of Congress accountable for undermining our democracy and fundamental freedoms."
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Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on abortion rights, race, education, ... Read more
