A Chalmette woman has filed suit in Baton Rouge in an attempt to bar Donald Trump from qualifying for Louisiana's 2024 presidential ballot, a legal maneuver also being attempted by Trump opponents in more than a dozen other states.
Trump should be disqualified from appearing as a presidential candidate because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 raid on the U.S. Capitol, actions that led to his impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives on insurrection charges, plaintiff Ashley Reeb argues in her suit.
A majority of the U.S. Senate voted to convict Trump after he was impeached by the House, but the upper chamber failed to gather the supermajority of votes needed.
The lawsuit, filed Dec. 22 in the Baton Rouge-based 19th Judicial District, notes that the 14th Amendment bars from office anyone who once took an oath to uphold the Constitution but then “engaged” in “insurrection or rebellion” against it. Like other suits seeking to keep Trump off the ballot, it argues Trump violated that clause.
"Both Trump's actions (engaging in insurrection) as well as his inaction (giving aid and comfort to insurrectionists) on January 6, 2021 disqualify him from holding any office of/under the United States," Reeb wrote in her suit.
The suit names as a defendant Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, who administers the state's elections. The suit will likely end up in the hands of the Louisiana Supreme Court, which is dominated by conservatives.
However, the legal question of whether Trump is disqualified from holding national office will likely fall to the U.S. Supreme Court in the end, said Silas Lee, a political strategist and sociology professor at Xavier University.
The Supreme Court also has a six-member conservative majority, including three justices appointed by Trump, who likely wouldn't have to recuse themselves from any decision on his candidacy, Lee said.
"It's a legal drama that no one ever envisioned," Lee said. "And like so many things involving Trump, it is unprecedented. We don't have a template for it. We don't have any previous decisions to make analytical or fact-based conclusions on."
Neither Reeb — a registered Democrat in St. Bernard Parish — nor representatives for Trump responded to requests seeking comment. A spokesperson for Ardoin said his office can't comment on pending litigation.
Similar challenges to Trump's candidacy have also been filed in 17 other states to date, according to a tally by The New York Times. So far, only Colorado's Supreme Court has moved to disqualify Trump. Michigan's top court ruled Wednesday that Trump should remain eligible for that state's ballot.
The GOP in Colorado has appealed the state high court's decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
