Minnesota Supreme Court to hear oral arguments in Trump ballot case Thursday

Oct. 30—ST. PAUL — In addition to his

federal and state criminal trials,

former President Donald Trump is also facing legal challenges in Minnesota and Colorado seeking to bar his name from 2024 ballots.

The Minnesota Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this week in a case filed by Free Speech for the People, a nonprofit organization focused on political equality and democratic self-government, on behalf of eight Minnesota residents against Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon. The organization is co-lead counsel with the Minneapolis-based law firm Lockridge Grindal Nauen P.L.L.P. Arguments are scheduled to begin Thursday, Nov. 2.

Filed on Sept. 12, the lawsuit seeks to keep Trump off Minnesota's ballots next year because of his actions revolving around the Jan. 6, 2020, Capitol riots. The suit claims that Trump is disqualified under Section Three of the 14th Amendment, on the argument that he engaged in insurrection in his attempts to stop Congress from certifying his election loss.

The 14th Amendment was added shortly after the Civil War and barred Confederate leaders from holding governmental office without congressional approval.

Among the eight plaintiffs are former Secretary of State Joan Growe and former Supreme Court Justice Paul Anderson.

The Minnesota petition claims that Trump attempted to overthrow the 2020 election by spreading election misinformation, urging Vice President Mike Pence not to certify votes and urging his followers to "fight like hell" following his expected election loss certification.

"This case is critically important for our Constitution and our democracy and we are appreciative that the Minnesota Supreme Court is treating it seriously," John Bonifaz, president of Free Speech For People, said.

Bonifaz, a constitutional attorney for the last 32 years, said the lawsuit seeks to enforce the Constitution, not attack any specific political party.

"Those who want to say this provision should be ignored effectively want to ignore what the framers of the 14th Amendment intended," he said. "This was not a provision solely to deal with the ex-Confederates after the Civil War, it was designed to deal with all future elections."

The Republican Party of Minnesota has intervened in the case, filing a response on Sept. 27 that challenges the constitutionality of barring Trump from the ballot. The party is represented by R. Reid LeBeau II of Jacobson, Magnuson, Anderson and Halloran P.C.

"Petitioners' shortsighted requests would do violence, not simply to the Republican Party of Minnesota, but to all political parties and their members. This Court should decline Petitioners' invitation to play butcher to the U.S. Constitution. Rather, this Court should follow the volumes of case law which clearly establish that the First Amendment freedom of association is a shield from the very harm which Petitioners seek to inflict," LeBeau wrote in his response to the lawsuit.

For his part, Simon's office, which oversees elections in Minnesota, did not take a stance on the lawsuit's merits but did ask the court to rule on the case by Jan. 5, 2024. Simon is represented by Attorney General Keith Ellison's office.

Similar cases made against Congresswoman

Marjorie Taylor Greene

and former Congressman

Madison Cawthorn

have been unsuccessful, though a

Colorado judge recently rejected Trump's efforts

to dismiss a lawsuit to keep him off the ballot in that state.

Despite those efforts failing — Cawthorn lost reelection and a judge ruled Greene was not personally engaged in an insurrection — Bonifaz counts them as wins because judges ruled that states have the authority to enforce the amendment in question and that a criminal conviction is not required to enforce the amendment.