A lawsuit aimed at disqualifying former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot in Arizona is set to be heard by a federal judge on October 23.
The lawsuit was filed in Arizona federal court by John Anthony Castro, who Arizona’s Family describes as a “long-shot Republican presidential candidate from Texas.” Castro, who claims to be mounting a nationwide write-in campaign, argued that Trump’s alleged role in the civil unrest on January 6, 2021, should preclude him from running for office.
However, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) dismissed the lawsuit as “a waste of taxpayer money,” noting that the question of Trump’s candidacy is “not ready for judicial action.”
For the 2020 election, presidential candidates could not file in Arizona until November 9, 2019, with the deadline closing one month later. In 2024, reports indicate candidates may file beginning on November 11, 2023, with the deadline one month later.
The lawsuit cites the 14th Amendment, the post-Civil War constitutional amendment that grants citizenship to all who are born or naturalized in the United States, and includes provisions banning those who have “engaged in insurrection” from holding federal office. Though high-profile Democrats have suggested Trump could be disqualified from the ballot using the 14th Amendment, legal scholars remain conflicted.
Castro has filed similar legal challenges to Trump’s candidacy in at least 14 states, and told Newsweek that part of his legal strategy is to abandon any case that is not assigned to a judge appointed by either President Bill Clinton or President Barack Obama.
“When you file a federal court case, it’s a lottery. You don’t know what judge is going to be assigned. Even if it’s a liberal district, you can still end up getting a very conservative judge,” Castro told the outlet, later adding that he is “basically sidelining and neutralizing the influence of conservative judges” to “only proceed” in venues where his case is assigned to “Obama-appointed judges or Clinton-appointed judges.”
Castro noted that “Judge Douglas Rayes in Arizona,” who was appointed by Obama, “has now just scheduled the nation’s first hearing on whether to kick Trump off the ballot.”
The October 23 court date will likely place even higher strain on Trump’s legal team, which Newsweek noted will need to prepare for six separate trials between now and January.
Trump was also set to face trial in Fulton County, Georgia on October 23 until last week, when the case against attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell was severed from Fulton County’s August 14 indictment of Trump and those who helped him contest the 2020 election. With the cases severed, pundits now expect Trump to head to trial in December.
– – –
Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Georgia Star News and a reporter for the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
