A New Hampshire lawsuit aiming to keep Donald Trump off the 2024 ballot has been dismissed, Law&Crime reported Monday.
The federal judge who dismissed the case — which was brought by Texas tax attorney John Anthony Castro — said that even if the case was viable, it “raises a nonjusticiable political question.”
Castro had challenged Trump's standing for election citing the 14th Amendment, which states that anybody who takes part in an insurrection effectively disqualifies themselves from standing for public office.
Castro argued that Trump's actions on Jan. 6 prompted the 14th Amendment to take effect. Similar challenges have been filed around the country, including one in Colorado which is at the center of a hearing this week.
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But the New Hampshire judge ruled it was not up to the court to decide that.
“In sum, the vast weight of authority has held that the Constitution commits to Congress and the electors the responsibility of determining matters of presidential candidates’ qualifications. Castro provides no reason to deviate from this consistent authority,” the judge wrote.
“Thus, it appears to the court that Castro’s claim — which challenges Trump’s eligibility as a presidential candidate under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment — raises a nonjusticiable political question. As such, even if Castro did have standing to assert his claim, the court would lack jurisdiction to hear it under the political question doctrine.”
That doctrine limits the ability of the federal courts to hear constitutional questions.
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The judge added that courts “dealing with this justiciability question have not undertaken a searching analysis of the text and history of, for example, the Electoral Count Act and the Twentieth Amendment, which potentially impact the proper application of the political question doctrine.”
Castro is running for president as a Republican and has filed 27 federal lawsuits across the country challenging Trump's eligibility to run under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Read the full report over at Law&Crime.
