Several Republican committees have filed a brief with the Supreme Court of Minnesota in which they asked the court to keep former President Donald Trump on the state's 2024 ballot.
The amicus brief, according to Breitbart News, was filed on Friday by the Republican National Committee (RNC), the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).
Minnesota is one of those states that have far-left groups that are trying to keep Trump off of the state's presidential ballot in 2024.
The argument is based on Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which, in relevant part, states:
No person shall . . . hold any office . . . under the United States . . . who, having previously taken an oath . . . to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.
A leftist group, ironically called, "Free Speech For People," is arguing that because Trump, as the former president of the United States, took such an oath and because Trump "engaged in insurrection," with regard to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, Trump ought to be disqualified from running for the presidency again in 2024.
Similar efforts are taking place in other states as well, including Arizona, Michigan, California, and New Hampshire.
Legal experts who are not rabidly anti-Trump, such as renowned defense attorney Alan Dershowitz - a Democrat who does not support Trump - say that this argument holds no water.
In their brief, the Republican committees explain why it is that the leftist group's reading of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment is wrong.
The brief, in part, reads:
Their proposed relief would interfere with political-party primaries, which violates Republicans’ First Amendment rights. Republicans argue Free Speech For People misread the text and history to apply Section Three to former Presidents and future Presidents, even though the text references the Article VI oath of office that no President has ever taken. And last, Free Speech For People defy Congress’s choice to end Section Three enforcement long ago.
The heads of the Republican committees who filed the amicus brief have all released statements on the matter, including RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
She said:
The 2024 Republican presidential candidate will be decided by Republican voters, not courts or government officials. Disqualifying candidates from the ballot based on crimes they haven’t been charged with would set a destructive precedent for future elections and is purely political. Republicans are united in pushing back against this dangerous overreach.
It remains to be seen how this will all play out.
It is expected that, at some point, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court will get involved. But, for now, the justices have been ignoring the issue.
Trump remains the clear favorite to win the Republican Party's 2024 presidential nomination.
