A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit to keep Donald Trump off the presidential ballot in Rhode Island.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. tossed the suit brought by John Anthony Castro, a write-in Republican presidential candidate, citing a similar ruling in the New Hampshire case by the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals.

The judge ruled Castro, from Texas, lacked standing in the case.

“The appellate court found that Castro failed to prove he is a ‘direct and current competitor at the time he filed his complaint,'” The Messenger reports.

Castro could not establish that he would suffer an injury if Trump remained on the ballot.

The Messenger reports:

Castro had advanced a 14th Amendment-based argument, claiming that Trump should be banned from appearing on the ballot because his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol and said that attempts to overturn the 2020 election made Trump an insurrectionist. A post-Civil War addition to the Constitution, the 14th Amendment includes a provision banning insurrectionists from holding public office.

Similar suits have been brought in other states, with Colorado Colorado District Court Judge Sarah Wallace rejecting one such suit, saying Trump did likely meet the definition of insurrectionist but that the 14th Amendment provision did not apply to the presidency.

The Supreme Court announced on Nov. 22 that it would hear appeals in the Colorado case from both sides.

“Earlier today, a federal judge in Rhode Island dismissed yet another frivolous 14th Amendment challenge to President Trump’s ballot eligibility in 2024. Courts in Colorado, New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Michigan have all dismissed similar claims by political actors seeking to interfere with the presidential election and help the failing campaign of Crooked Joe Biden. President Trump remains undefeated in beating back these spurious claims,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said.

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The Providence Journal noted:

Castro has argued in courts nationwide that Trump is not eligible for next year’s GOP presidential primary ballot because the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution disqualifies anyone who engaged in or provided “aid of comfort” to an insurrection.

Castro’s lawsuit in Rhode Island named Trump and Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore as defendants as he sought to keep Trump off next year’s presidential primary ballot.

Trump’s arguments

Trump argued through lawyer Gregory Piccirilli that ballot eligibility rules are set by Congress and the Electoral College, not the courts, requiring that Castro’s lawsuit be thrown out.

“Federal courts presented with similar cases challenging the qualifications of presidential candidates have uniformly indicated that they present nonjusticiable political questions reserved for those entities,” Piccirilli wrote. “This Court should do likewise.”

Piccirilli also asserted that the former president’s behavior on and after Jan. 6 did not amount to insurrection under the 14th Amendment anyway.

 

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