Donald Trump’s case against Colorado just got a little more ammunition.
On Friday, a federal judge dismissed another effort to remove Donald Trump from the ballot. This time in Virginia.
Activists Roy Perry-Bey and Carlos Howard filed the suit in Virginia, alleging that Trump “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” and should be disqualified from running for any office in the United States.
Judge Leonie Brinkema, a Clinton-appointed judge, found that the plaintiffs lacked standing in the case and dismissed it. The ruling stated:
“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.
“Plaintiffs have totally failed to demonstrate how their alleged injuries are traceable to the conduct of defendants.”
As soon as the ruling was released, the Trump campaign responded and celebrated yet another massive win in the effort to keep Trump off the ballots in the upcoming election. The campaign stated:
“President Trump remains undefeated in 14th Amendment ballot challenges in federal courts with today’s ruling in the Eastern District of Virginia.
“Thus far, 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.”
The campaign seems to have forgotten about the ruling in Colorado in its statement, and Trump is not undefeated in these cases, as the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump can be removed from the ballot, although that ruling was stayed pending an appeal.
The plaintiffs in the Virginia case tried to lean on the rulings in Colorado and Maine to remove Trump from the ballot, with Judge Brinkema explaining why those cases had no bearing on the Virginia case, writing:
“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.”
The more of these cases that Trump wins heading into the Supreme Court review of the case, the better, but as I noted before, there are still concerns moving forward that were brought up in the Michigan case.
Because this is a primary race, one judge has already interpreted it as being irrelevant to the 14th Amendment because you are not electing an officeholder, which is the purpose of the general election.
I am hoping the Supreme Court clears up that issue when it reviews the Colorado cause because if the court does not clarify the issue, we are likely to see another found of lawsuits after the primary race to remove Trump from the general election ballot… this fight is far from over.
