Suit by Republican challenger to keep Trump off the ballot in RI dismissed. What comes next?
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PROVIDENCE – A federal judge on Monday threw out a lawsuit challenging former President Donald J. Trump’s right to be on the presidential ballot in Rhode Island.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. dismissed the lawsuit brought by write-in Republican presidential candidate John Anthony Castro, of Texas, based on a 1st Circuit Court Appeals ruling on Nov. 21 concluding that Castro lacked standing in a nearly identical case in New Hampshire.
The court found that Castro failed to show he was a “direct and current competitor at the time that he filed his complaint,” and that as a result, he could not establish that he would suffer an injury-in-fact if Trump remained on the ballot.
In the ruling, the appeals court upheld a lower court determination that “Castro makes no attempt to demonstrate that he is actually competing with Trump for votes and contributions.”
Similar lawsuits brought nationwide
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.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Trump keeps right to be on presidential ballot in RI
