A federal judge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida dismissed a lawsuit challenging former President Donald Trump’s candidacy under the 14th Amendment. In the Thursday ruling, Judge Robin Rosenberg determined that the case brought against the former president over his involvement in the events of January 6 had no standing, leaving him eligible to appear on the Florida ballot.
The suit filed last week by Boynton Beach tax attorney Lawrence Caplan claims that Donald Trump’s alleged participation in the Capitol Riot on January 6, 2021, disqualified him from holding office again. “This is a scary, scary guy, and if he’s president, I think we’re all on the way to fascism,” Caplan said ahead of the filing. “There’s no law that says we have to remain a democracy forever.”
Specifically, Caplan cites Section III of the 14th Amendment, which states:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.
Whether Trump’s actions on January 6 rise to the level of insurrection has been the subject of significant legal debate, but neither the former president nor the hundreds of people arrested in connection with that riot have been formally charged with the crime of “insurrection.”
On Thursday, Judge Robin Rosenberg, appointed to the bench by Barack Obama, summarily dismissed the case on the grounds that Caplan had no legal standing to file it. “Plaintiffs lack standing to challenge Defendant’s qualifications for seeking the Presidency,” Rosenberg wrote, adding that “the injuries alleged” from the Capitol riot “are not cognizable and not particular to them.”
She further added that “an individual citizen does not have standing to challenge whether another individual is qualified to hold public office.” However, even in dismissing the case, Rosenberg did not determine whether further 14th Amendment challenges against Trump are legitimate.
Rosenberg’s ruling comes at the same time as other 14th Amendment cases—as well as several federal indictments—are pending against Trump across the country.
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