Can States Block Donald Trump From Running? What We Know

Speculation about whether Donald Trump could be barred from running for office for allegedly inciting an insurrection has emerged once again amid a renewed campaign from two advocacy groups.

The Free Speech For People (FSFP) and Mi Familia Vota Education Fund groups wrote letters to secretaries of state and election officials across the county urging them to "carry out their responsibility" by barring the former president from being on the ballot for the 2024 election.

The groups argue that Trump should be banned from trying to re-enter the White House due to his actions in and around the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump is accused of violating Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which states that a person who "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" after taking a congressional oath should be prevented from running for office again.

Trump, who is currently the overwhelming favorite to clinch the GOP presidential nomination, denies all wrongdoing in connection to the Capitol riot and attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's office via email for comment.

In the U.S., each state essentially runs its own elections under a decentralized system, with the bulk of the duties performed by a secretary of state including certifying elections and ensuring federal and state election laws are being followed.

In most states, the secretary of state is also the chief election official responsible for oversight of state elections and decides if a candidate is qualified to run for president. Normally, election officials decide whether candidates are qualified to run based on stipulations such as whether they are old enough, or meet residency requirements, rather than issues surrounding them allegedly engaging in an insurrection.

There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that prevents a candidate who has been convicted of a criminal offense from running for office again.

Alexandra Flores-Quilty, the campaign director for FSFP, says there is "overwhelming" evidence that Trump "incited and mobilized the insurrection" on January 6, 2021, and therefore violated the Constitution and should be barred from the ballot.

Whether such a move will ever be taken is as unprecedented as it is unlikely. For more than 150 years, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, introduced in the wake of the Civil War, was little thought of. As a result, there is no indication of whether it can ever be cited to stop a president from running for office.

If a secretary of state was to make such a decision to bar Trump from running as a presidential candidate, the move will almost certainly be met with legal challenges which could potentially run on and on.

Doron Kalir, a professor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, noted that there are no guidelines on how the 14th Amendment could be applied to a former president, or at all.

"It is not clear who should make the determination that the person has engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States," Kalir told Insider in November 2022.

While Trump is under federal indictment as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith's January 6 probe, it is unclear whether the former president could face charges related to acts of insurrection.

Trump was impeached for the second time for his actions on January 6, 2021. He was acquitted by the Senate after the upper chamber failed to achieve a two-thirds majority as required by the U.S. Constitution to convict the former president.

Election officials who received the letters from FSFP and Mi Familia Vota Education Fund urging they bar Trump from running for office have given no indication they will act on the request.

"The agency will review it, as we do all suggestions from the public, but we have no comment on their request at this time," Ben Morris, a spokesman for the Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade's office, told Oregon Capital Chronicle.

Annie Orloff, a spokesperson for Colorado Secretary of State Jenna Griswold's office, told Colorado Newsline: "We are going to officially decline to comment at this time."

Officials in the other states who were sent the letters from the advocacy groups— California, Georgia, Michigan, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania—declined to comment when contacted by Newsweek.