{"id":5322,"date":"2023-08-31T12:00:26","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T12:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=5322"},"modified":"2023-08-31T12:01:43","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T12:01:43","slug":"dem-ag-josh-kaul-says-it-remains-to-be-seen-whether-trump-will-be-allowed-on-wisconsin-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=5322","title":{"rendered":"Dem AG Josh Kaul Says It \u2018Remains to Be Seen\u2019 Whether Trump Will Be Allowed on Wisconsin Ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/trump-will-be-allowed-on-wisconsin-ballot\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/p>\n

It would be absolutely outrageous to deprive millions of Wisconsinites of their right to choose Donald Trump if they want. But the state\u2019s Democratic AG isn\u2019t ruling it out
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Wisconsin Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul said on audio late this month that it \u201cremains to be seen\u201d whether former President Donald Trump, who is leading in Republican primary polls, will be allowed on the Wisconsin ballot, appearing to reference a law review article<\/a> that argues Trump should be denied access to state ballots based on the 14th Amendment.<\/p>\n

On August 23, 2023, Wispolitics.com asked Kaul in a podcast<\/a> whether, if the indictments against Trump \u201cend up sticking,\u201d there is any possibility that Trump \u201cdoesn\u2019t end up showing up on certain ballots across the country and maybe Wisconsin. Is that a possibility?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat remains to be seen,\u201d Kaul responded. He then noted that there was \u201can analysis in a law review article\u201d that \u201cmade certain arguments about whether Donald Trump is eligible to be on the ballot. I think we will hear more discussion of those topics and potentially legal presentations going forward. It\u2019s too early to say where that will end up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such an action \u2013 denying Wisconsin voters the right to choose Trump by denying him access to Wisconsin\u2019s ballot \u2013 would be exceptionally divisive, anti-democratic, and likely to end up before the United States Supreme Court. It also could determine the presidency.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a stunning statement that Wisconsin\u2019s Democratic AG \u2013 who once worked for Perkins Coie, Hillary Clinton\u2019s law firm, on election matters \u2013 is open to the idea of preventing Wisconsin voters from being able to choose Trump, yet outside the Wispolitics podcast, it\u2019s gotten zero attention from the state\u2019s news media. Despite multiple indictments by Democratic prosecutors and Joe Biden\u2019s administration\u2019s appointee, Trump is ahead by more than 40% for the GOP nomination, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average.<\/a><\/p>\n

The drumbeat to keep Trump off state ballots started among a group of law professors, including Trump critics and a prominent liberal professor, who are weaving a foundation for ballot access challenges relating to the 14th Amendment. It won\u2019t matter if Trump is kicked off the ballot in blue states. He won\u2019t win them anyway.<\/p>\n

The real game will be to kick him off the ballot in a red state (won\u2019t happen) or (and here\u2019s where we come in) a battleground state, of which there are few. Wisconsin, with its divided government, Democratic governor and AG, and deadlocked Wisconsin Election Commission, may become the prime battleground for this effort. Lawyers for the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty raised this concern<\/a> in a recent article in National Review.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin essentially did exactly this, using different grounds, to third-party nominees for the Green Party and Kanye West in 2020, denying them access to Wisconsin\u2019s ballot, arguably helping Joe Biden win Wisconsin (remember that the Greens\u2019 Jill Stein got more votes in Wisconsin than Trump\u2019s margin of victory against Hillary Clinton in 2016.) The Green Party case went all the way to Wisconsin\u2019s Supreme Court, now liberal-controlled.<\/p>\n

In a party line vote <\/a>on a complete technicality, Democrats on the Wisconsin Election Commission (including two major Joe Biden donors) argued the Green Party VP \u2013 Angela Walker \u2013 used two addresses on her nomination papers. She said she had simply moved \u2013 within the same state. To kick the Greens off the ballot on this hyper triviality, the Democrats on the state Election Commission stated that it wasn\u2019t proven that Walker had actually moved. Republicans said it was obvious she moved.<\/p>\n

However, some legal experts we spoke to believe that any effort to keep Trump off the Wisconsin ballot due to the 14th Amendment would have to be brought in federal court<\/strong> because it\u2019s a constitutional question. They don\u2019t believe the state Election Commission would have any authority. The cases of West and the Green Party (and a separate failed challenge to the ballot access rights of Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels) involved state nomination papers, which the Wisconsin Election Commission does have authority over. WILL, however, believes the partisan WEC could come into play or even rogue county clerks. What happens when WEC deadlocks is a matter of legal interpretation and dispute.<\/p>\n

The key passage in the 14th Amendment bans former civilian or military officials from holding office if they \u201cshall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion\u201d against the United States government. It was created in the wake of the Civil War to prevent former Confederates from becoming president or controlling Congress.<\/p>\n

There are several obvious problems with applying this to Trump:<\/p>\n

Was Jan. 6 really an \u201cinsurrection\u201d or \u201crebellion\u201d? Trump and many conservatives would argue no.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the definition of \u201cinsurrection\u201d or \u201crebellion\u201d? Unclear.<\/p>\n

Did Trump HIMSELF really engage in those things? He and many conservatives would argue no.<\/p>\n

Even Jack Smith didn\u2019t charge Trump with \u201cinsurrection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does the 14th Amendment require a conviction?<\/p>\n

Doesn\u2019t Trump have free speech rights?<\/p>\n

These are serious questions that the conservative-controlled United States Supreme Court will probably have to answer.<\/p>\n

Constitutional law expert Kent Greenfield of Boston College Law School told NBC Boston <\/a>the issue will end up in the courts, saying, \u201cSo much of it depends on how we think of Jan. 6. Was it in insurrection? Sedition?\u201d<\/p>\n

WILL\u2019s Rick Esenberg and Dan Lennington wrote, \u201cNo one really knows just what constitutes \u2018insurrection\u2019 or \u2018rebellion\u2019 for the purposes of Section 3. Brilliant lawyers disagree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esenberg and Lennington noted, \u201cWe are partial to the argument that, to be deemed an insurrection, an action should look more like the Civil War that led to the amendment\u2019s adoption than like false claims, however reprehensible, of a stolen election and specious legal theories that electoral votes need not be accepted. But the question won\u2019t be answered until \u2014 and if \u2014 the Supreme Court weighs in.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be clear: We think it would be outrageous to deprive the American people (remember them?) of the right to vote for Donald Trump if they choose to. We think kicking him off any ballot would be an affront to Democracy and another stage in an extremely disturbing weaponization of the legal system and prosecutorial power to interfere with the 2024 election. We are not endorsing a candidate in the GOP primary, however.<\/p>\n

However, if you don\u2019t think the left and some anti-Trump national folks are serious about advancing this claim, just google \u201c14th Amendment\u201d and \u201cTrump\u201d and read the current burst of national media articles on it. Conservative legal scholars, like Michael Luttig, are joining in the chorus with liberal professors like Laurence Tribe to further reinforce the original law review article by William Baude and Michael S. Paulsen.<\/p>\n

Luttig, by the way, is an advisor for Trump\u2019s opponent, former Vice President Mike Pence (funny how so many articles leave that completely out). Luttig is a persistent Trump critic, and he has said electing Trump would be dangerous, according to Politico.<\/a><\/p>\n

In New Hampshire, the secretary of state and attorney general are reviewing<\/a> a 14th Amendment challenge to Trump\u2019s ballot access there. A Florida lawyer has filed<\/a> a similar 14th Amendment challenge there.<\/p>\n

There is some pushback. The Atlantic ran an article<\/a> by anti-Trump former Bush speechwriter David Frum in which he argued, \u201cThe project to disqualify Trump from running for president is misguided and dangerous. It won\u2019t work. If it somehow could work, it would create problems worse even than Americans already face.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/trump-will-be-allowed-on-wisconsin-ballot\/ It would be absolutely outrageous to deprive millions of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":5324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-right-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5322"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5325,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5322\/revisions\/5325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}