this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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United States | News & Politics

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Trump argues First Amendment protects him from 'insurrection' cases aimed at keeping him off ballot (apnews.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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DENVER (AP) — Attorneys for former President Donald Trump argue that an attempt to bar him from the 2024 ballot under a rarely used “insurrection” clause of the Constitution should be dismissed as a violation of his freedom of speech.

The lawyers made the argument in a filing posted Monday by a Colorado court in the most significant of a series of challenges to Trump’s candidacy under the Civil War-era clause in the 14th Amendment. The challenges rest on Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden and his role leading up to the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oh he can talk all he wants. He just can't be elected, lol.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Absolutely. Not being allowed to stand for office does not conflict or restrict his freedom of speech rights.

It's like a non us citizen saying the "natural born citizen" clause in the constitution conflicts with their right to free speech.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Don't be mistaken–being disqualified from standing for election is a restriction on his right to free political speech. However, this is a permissible restriction on free speech because the constitution (Amendment XIV) deems that those who engaged in insurrection should not be able to serve in office.

Trump's argument is similar to arguing that slavery is legal because it says so in the original constitution...disregarding the fact that a future amendment changed that.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 years ago

Slavery is explicitly still legal though in the 13th amendment.