A lawsuit aimed at keeping former President Donald Trump off the presidential primary ballot in Virginia has been dismissed, with a federal judge saying the plaintiffs lacked the standing to remove him based on the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
"At least five additional federal courts have concluded that citizens attempting to disqualify individuals — including former President Trump — from participating in elections or from holding public office based on the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol lacked standing," Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia wrote in a 13-page ruling, reported the New York Post.
"Plaintiffs have totally failed to demonstrate how their alleged injuries are traceable to the conduct of defendants," Brinkema, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, added.
The complaint was filed by activists Roy Perry-Bey and Carlos Howard on claims that Trump "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the United States in connection with the Jan. 6 protests at the U.S. Capitol and should be disqualified.
Brinkema also said that the complaint filed in Virginia, based on rulings in Maine and Colorado to keep Trump off the ballot, was out of place.
"Plaintiffs' attempt to achieve a result similar to that in Colorado cannot occur in this Court because of the nature of their direct federal constitutional claims and because of the constraints imposed by Article III that limit the jurisdiction of federal courts," she wrote.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that Trump was ineligible to appear on the state's primary ballot. On Thursday, Maine's Democrat secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, removed him from the ballot.
Both cited Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, a Civil War-era law banning people who have participated in an insurrection from holding public office.
The clause was added to the 14th Amendment, which granted citizenship and equal civil and legal rights to anyone born in the United States or who became a citizen of the country, including African Americans and slaves who had been freed after the Civil War, to keep former Confederate officials from becoming elected officials and taking over state and federal government offices.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement that the Virginia ruling means Trump "remains undefeated in 14th Amendment ballot challenges in federal courts.
He noted that federal courts in West Virginia, New Hampshire, Florida, Arizona, and Rhode Island, as well as state courts in Michigan and Minnesota, "have jettisoned these bad-faith, politically motivated attempts to steal the 2024 election by disqualifying President Trump from the ballot."
Cheung also said Democrats have launched a "multifront lawfare campaign to disenfranchise tens of millions of American voters and interfere in the election" because Trump is leading in several election polls.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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