Former President Donald Trump is facing a new challenge to keep him off the Super Tuesday primary ballot in Massachusetts over his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
A legal challenge, filed by lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan on behalf of several Massachusetts voters, argues that a rarely used clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prevents Trump from being elected to a second term, due to his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
“Today’s legal action is not about partisan politics but about upholding our Constitution, and that is why Massachusetts voters across the political spectrum have joined together to challenge Donald Trump’s wrongful placement on the Massachusetts ballot,” Liss-Riordan said in a statement. “As two other states have already recognized, Donald Trump’s instigation of and participation in the insurrection three years ago provide overwhelming cause for his disqualification from holding office in the United States.”
The challengers are a mix of Republican, Independent, and Democratic voters, according to a statement released on Thursday night. They include former interim Boston Mayor Kim Janey and “two leading law professors.” They ask the Massachusetts Ballot Law Commission to remove Trump’s name from the ballot.
Galvin told reporters he had no intention of keeping Trump off the ballot unless he was ordered to do so from a legal challenge.
The effort is backed by the Newton-based non-partisan group Free Speech for People, which has filed similar ballot challenges in other states across the country over the past several months.