New York Dems threaten lawsuit to keep Trump off the ballot

NEW YORK — Democratic lawmakers in New York are not ruling out a lawsuit to block former President Donald Trump from the state’s April 2 primary.

State Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Brad Hoylman-Sigal has pressed Republican state elections officials to prevent the erstwhile New Yorker from appearing on the ballot.

Hoylman-Sigal renewed that call after the Colorado Supreme Court moved to bar the former president. Trump’s campaign is expected to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“New York has to take a stand as Colorado has already done for the 14th Amendment,” Hoylman-Sigal said in an interview. “I’m concerned — as others should be — that if we don’t enforce Trump’s disqualification, there’s a real danger that he could incite insurrection again.”

New York is among at least 16 states with pending legal challenges that seek to use Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which says no one shall hold office if they’ve “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the United States or its Constitution, to drop Trump from their ballots. They argue he incited an insurrection when a mob of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Hoylman-Sigal said he’s speaking to attorneys about bringing a separate suit.

But the Manhattan Democrat was sanguine when asked if the mounting legal problems for Trump will only empower the former president with the Republican base.

“It’s politics, but it’s politics on the part of the candidates,” he said. “This is a serious constitutional issue that needs to get resolved before New York’s presidential primary.”

It’s highly unlikely that Trump will win deep-blue New York in the November general election but opponents who want him excluded from the April primary say it’s about principle, even if it enflames his base.

“We’re in a moment in our country where there is a true challenge to democratic norms,” State Sen. Gustavo Rivera said in an interview.

The Bronx Democrat sent a recent letter to the State Board of Elections with Hoylman-Sigal and three other colleagues, asking its members to leave Trump off the ballot.

Separately, state Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz, also a Bronx Democrat, introduced legislation to amend state election law and allow for the removal of an insurrectionist from the ballot. (Hoylman-Sigal is sponsoring the bill in the state Senate.)

“I know a significant portion of our country is in complete denial about what happened but I will never forget it,” Dinowitz said in an interview about Jan. 6. He recounted that he thought to himself at the time, “How can this be the United States of America?”

The bill, if passed, would kick off a process that could eventually come to include State Attorney General Tish James, a Trump adversary who built a financial fraud case against the former president. The legislation “authorizes the board of elections, or the attorney general in the case of a deadlock, to remove an insurrectionist from the presidential ballot,” according to its summary.

State Board of Elections representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

Dinowitz vowed to be tenacious about getting the legislation passed in Albany, saying “it’s the right thing to do.”

Trump, his campaign and his supporters obviously feel otherwise. The former president posted on social media Thursday, “I’m not an insurrectionist.”

The Colorado decision from late Tuesday is expected to be taken up by the high court.

“We have full confidence that the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly rule in our favor and finally put an end to these unAmerican lawsuits,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.

Hoylman-Sigal said violating the 14th Amendment disqualifies a person from becoming president just as being younger than 35 or being a non-citizen would.

Two lawsuits have already been filed in New York.

Longshot Republican presidential candidate John Anthony Castro filed a complaint in the Southern District of New York like he did in several other states to get Trump out of the race.

And Jerome Dewald, a Republican attorney suing Trump in the Northern District of New York, said he believes having the former president on the primary ballot denies Republican New Yorkers the chance to vote for someone else.

Dewald shared Hoylman-Sigal’s sentiment about basic qualifications.

“It’s not a question about being convicted,” Dewald said in an interview. “The question is did he foment an insurrection? The evidence is quite clear that he did.”

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