A Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice has rejected a petition seeking to exclude Trump from the 2024 ballot.
This ruling comes one week after the Massachusetts State Ballot Law Commission rejected a challenge to bar Trump from the 2024 primary ballot, citing the 14th Amendment.
“We believe that Mr. Trump’s candidacy for this office and placement on the Massachusetts ballot violates the Constitution, so we are challenging the constitutionality,” said Shannon Liss-Riordan, an attorney for the challengers, according to CNN. “It is the job of this commission to hear objections to the legality of placement of candidates on the ballot.”
The legal argument revolves around Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which stipulates that public officials who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the US may be disqualified from holding public office.
Trump has not been charged with engaging in insurrection or rebellion against the United States.
CBS News reported:
The highest court in Massachusetts has turned away a challenge to take former President Donald Trump off the Republican primary ballot.
Supreme Judicial Court Justice Frank Gaziano denied a petition asking the court to either declare Trump ineligible for the primary ballot, or order the State Ballot Law Commission to revisit the issue after it previously decided it lacked jurisdiction.
A civil rights group and local law firm have argued that Trump should not appear on the ballot because he violated a Constitutional clause that says anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” can’t be president.
Gaziano wrote in his decision that the legal challenges have “come too soon.”
President Trump is facing similar legal challenges in other states, notably Maine and Colorado.
Last month, Maine’s far-left Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, unilaterally removed Trump from the 2024 ballot, labeling him an insurrectionist.
President Trump appealed Bellows’ decision to ban him from the 2024 ballot to the state superior court last Tuesday.
The Maine Superior Court ordered Trump to be reinstated on the ballot while awaiting a ruling from the US Supreme Court.
As Breaking Digest previously reported, last month, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled to disqualify Trump from the 2024 ballot.
In response, earlier this month, President Trump petitioned the US Supreme Court to overturn the decision. Oral arguments are scheduled for February 8.
