The Oregon Supreme Court will soon decide whether to remove Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 ballots because of the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban.”
A liberal advocacy group, Free Speech For People, filed the Oregon lawsuit last month on behalf of a group of voters. They went directly to the state’s top court and asked the justices to remove Trump from the ballot because he incited the January 6 insurrection.
The Oregon justices could rule at any time now that all the filings have been submitted.
This is the latest major challenge to Trump’s candidacy, after a dizzying few weeks with contradictory outcomes in different states, and a pending US Supreme Court appeal.
Colorado’s Supreme Court and Maine’s secretary of state removed Trump from the ballot based on the post-Civil War provision against insurrectionists holding office, though appeals are underway. Trump prevailed in several states, including Michigan and Minnesota, where top courts threw out similar lawsuits on procedural grounds.
The 14th Amendment, which was ratified after the Civil War, says US officials who take an oath to uphold the Constitution are disqualified from future office if they “engaged in insurrection” or have “given aid or comfort” to insurrectionists. However, the Constitution does not spell out how to enforce this ban, it has barely been touched since the late 1800s, and there are open legal questions about how it applies to the presidency.
Last week, the Oregon justices asked the parties to file additional arguments about whether the challengers had standing to file the lawsuit, and also about the role of the secretary of state in vetting the qualifications of candidates in a presidential primary.
“Granting the petition will protect (the anti-Trump challengers’) liberty interest in voting in a…
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