BREAKING: Supreme Court rejects case that Trump should be disqualified from the ballot under 14th Amendment

On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to consider a case brought against Donald Trump seeking to prevent him from running in the 2024 election under the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment, passed after the Civil War, was intended to prevent Confederate leaders from attaining elected office. 

Little-known Republican candidate John Anthony Castro sued the former president earlier this year over his ties to the Jan 6 riot, suggesting that his involvement should be grounds for diqualification. The 14th Amendment said that seditionists and those guilty of insurrection could not hold elected office. Trump has neither been criminally nor civilly charged with nor convicted of sedition or insurrection.

The court denied the bid without providing any comment or recorded vote.

Castro's case hinged on a provision of the 14th Amendment adopted following the American Civil War which states that, "no person shall ... 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."

In his lawsuit, Castro claimed that, "given his alleged provision of aid or comfort to the convicted criminals and insurrectionist that violently attacked our United States Capitol on January 6, 2021," Trump had violated the aforementioned rules.
 

"The framers of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment specifically designed it to remove overwhelming popular pro-insurrectionists from the ballot," he argued, suggesting Trump was "the precise type of person they sought to disqualify."

Castro brought his case to Washington, DC after a lower court dismissed it, saying he had no legal right or standing. He is not the only one to challenge Trump via the 14th Amendment, however. Two more serious cases are in the works in Minnesota and Colorado.