Supreme Court declines to hear long-shot 14th Amendment challenge to disqualify Trump

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a long-shot bid to disqualify former President Trump from running for office under the 14th Amendment.

John Castro, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, has filed various lawsuits seeking to challenge Trump’s eligibility under the amendment’s provision targeting those involved in insurrections.

In a brief, unsigned order issued Monday, the justices declined to take up one of his cases after Castro lost in a lower court.

“The Supreme Court can deny to hear the case but appellate courts cannot,” Castro responded on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

“I’m still pursuing decisions in the liberal appellate courts and there’s a full blown trial scheduled for October 20 in New Hampshire and a bench trial in Arizona on October 31,” he added.

Beyond Castro’s cases, various other lawsuits have been launched against Trump under the 14th Amendment, which states no person shall hold elected office who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States. 

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a lawsuit in Colorado on behalf of a group of voters there, and similar lawsuits are ongoing in places including Minnesota and Michigan.

Legal experts have been split as to whether the 14th Amendment can be applied to Trump over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

Castro had argued Trump gave “his aid and comfort to the convicted criminals and insurrectionists that violently attacked our United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, which results in disqualification to hold public office pursuant to the self-executing nature of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

Trump, who waived his right to respond to Castro’s petition before the Supreme Court, has broadly attacked the legal push as “another ‘trick’ being used by the Radical Left Communists, Marxists, and Fascists.”