Advocacy group appeals Mass. Supreme Judicial Court over Trump ballot issue
Free Speech for People appealed to the full Supreme Judicial Court to bar Trump from the ballot after a single justice denied their emergency petition.
An advocacy group has appealed to the full Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to bar former President Donald Trump from the Republican presidential primary ballot after a single justice on the court denied their emergency petition.
On Monday, Associate Justice Frank M. Gaziano of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court denied an emergency petition filed by nine Massachusetts voters on Jan. 23 challenging Trump’s eligibility to appear on the state’s presidential primary and general election ballot.
The challengers appealed the single justice’s decision to the full Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Monday, according to court documents.
The challengers are a mix of Republican, independent, and Democratic voters, as well as former Boston Mayor Kim Janey and two law professors. They are represented by a national non-profit advocacy group, Free Speech For People (FSFP), along with litigator Shannon Liss-Riordan of the Massachusetts-based civil rights firm Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C.
Gaziano rejected the group’s emergency petition for the same reason that led the state’s Ballot Law Commission to say earlier this month that it didn’t have jurisdiction over the matter: Trump’s name is on the ballot because the Massachusetts Republican Party submitted it to the Secretary of State, rather than through the nomination-paper process that the Ballot Law Commission has authority over.
“If there is any question whether the commission has the authority or jurisdiction to consider the petitioners’ objections regarding Trump’ eligibility to appear on the general election ballot, that question will not become ripe until, and if, he is selected as his party’s nominee for President,” Gaziano said in his decision.
Moreover, the justice added, Trump “is not appearing on the primary ballot as a ‘nominee,’” as the challengers have suggested. “Trump is a candidate for nomination; he is not a nominee,” he clarified.
But Liss-Riordan and the advocacy group said in a statement that Gaziano “did not rule on any of the central issues surrounding” Trump’s eligibility to appear on the ballot under Section 3 of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, and as such, they would immediately appeal the single justice’s decision to the full Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
In their Jan. 29 appeal, the challengers asked that the SJC “need not and cannot wait” for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide on the matter, going so far as to ask the court to suspend the appellate rules and enter an order on the case as soon as possible. They said a quick decision is necessary to “allow state officials adequate time to prepare appropriate ballots and to mitigate the risk of voter confusion.”
“Time is of the essence,” they added.
The Massachusetts presidential primary set to take place on March 5.
Timeline of events: Trump’s ballot eligibility in Massachusetts
- On January 4, 2024, Free Speech for People and Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C. filed with the Massachusetts Ballot Law Commission a petition on behalf of a group of voters challenging Donald Trump’s eligibility to appear on the state’s presidential primary and general election ballot.
- On January 22, 2024 the Massachusetts Ballow Law Commission dismissed the group’s Jan. 4 challenge, saying it does not have the jurisdiction to consider the challenge.
- On January 23, 2024 Free Speech For People and litigator Shannon Liss-Riordan of Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C., filed an emergency appeal before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on behalf of individual Massachusetts voters challenging Donald Trump’s eligibility to appear on the state’s presidential primary and general election ballot.
- On January 29, 2024, Associate Justice Frank M. Gaziano of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as a single justice, denied the emergency appeal by individual Massachusetts voters challenging Donald Trump’s eligibility to appear on the state’s presidential primary and general election ballot.
- On January 29, 2024 Free Speech for People appealed the single justice’s decision to the full Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
View Associate Justice Frank M. Gaziano of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s Jan. 29 decision below:
View Free Speech For People’s Jan. 29 appeal to the full Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court below:
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