Judge shoots down Trump effort to halt lawsuit trying to disqualify him from ballot

Some of Donald Trump's critics — including conservative legal figures — have been arguing that his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results were not only illegal, but also, disqualify him from running for president in 2024 under the insurrection clause in the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment.

Trump's allies were hoping that a lawsuit trying to keep him off the 2024 ballot would be thrown out in court, but in Colorado, Judge Sarah Wallace has ruled that the lawsuit can go forward.

Law & Crime's Matt Naham reports that Wallace "sided with a group of voters represented by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) who, citing January 6, sued in September to 'challenge the listing of Respondent Donald J. Trump as a candidate on the 2024 Republican presidential primary election ballot and any future election ballot, based on his disqualification from public office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.'"

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Trump's lawyers, Naham notes, tried to make an "anti-SLAPP" argument against the lawsuit, but Wallace disagreed. SLAPP stands for "strategic lawsuit against participation."

Wallace noted that anti-SLAPP laws "are intended to enable courts to dismiss frivolous cases brought with the intent to chill a person's constitutional rights."

According to Naham, "After concluding that the anti-SLAPP statute Trump cited did not apply to the case, the judge said that a scheduled October 13 anti-SLAPP hearing has been changed to a status conference, as the case speeds toward a trial on the merits on October 30."

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Read Law & Crime's full report at this link.