Newton Group Fighting To Keep Trump Off 2024 Ballot

NEWTON, MA — A Newton group is fighting to make sure Trump stays off the primary ballot due to his involvement in the January 6 Capitol riots, reported CommonWealth Magazine.

Free Speech for People, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ group Our Revolution, have launched a campaign asking election officials in each state to keep Trump off the primary ballot due to insurrection.

“Thankfully, insurrections against the United States are quite rare, and even rarer for an insurrection against the US to have been fomented or led by high officials who took an oath to support the Constitution,” Ron Fein, legal director of Free Speech for People, told CommonWealth Magazine. “But January 6, 2021, crossed that threshold. And the evidence has been out for awhile, but continues to be further emerging, in some of the details about how former President Trump met the legal standard for engaging in that insurrection.”

According to the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, no person shall hold office who took an oath to support the Constitution then “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

"By inciting a violent attack on Congress in an effort to prevent the certification of his own electoral defeat, Donald Trump engaged in insurrection and violated his oath of office,” says Free Speech for People’s campaign page.

In light of that amendment, Free Speech for People and Our Revolution wrote to Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin to ask that he exclude Trump from the ballot. However, Galvin said although the law could apply to Trump, a criminal conviction is required and the decision is therefore in the hands of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Free Speech for People has filed similar cases to keep Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Madison Cawthorn, Andy Biggs, and Paul Gosar off the ballot. However, these cases have been dismissed by judges.

According to Fein, Free Speech for People will appeal to the state Ballot Law Commission if Galvin does not act.