A Broward gadfly with a knack for generating attention has jumped into the weighty constitutional question of whether former President Donald Trump is disqualified from another term as president because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The answer, according to Chaz Stevens, is “yes.” He has filed suit in Broward County Circuit Court against Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd, seeking to have Trump declared ineligible — and to keep Trump off the Florida ballot in 2024.
Stevens cites the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, added after the Civil War, which disqualifies someone who has taken an oath to support the Constitution but then “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same” from holding office again. He said it applies to Trump because of his involvement in and around the Jan. 6, 2021, attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The question of Trump’s eligibility has taken on new prominence in recent weeks, and gone beyond the confines of legal scholars and cable TV talking heads. The Colorado Supreme Court and the Maine secretary of state determined that the 14th Amendment bars Trump.
Stevens’ attention to the weighty legal arguments is relatively brief. His four-page complaint asserts that, “Both Trump’s actions (engaging in insurrection) as well as his inaction (giving aid and comfort to insurrectionists) on January 6, 2021) disqualify him from holding any office of/under the United States.” The parenthetical statements are in Stevens’ complaint.
In a post Wednesday on social media, Stevens was less formal than in the lawsuit: “I’ve filed to kick Trump’s ass off the FL ballot,” he wrote.
Several legal scholars have said that the original text of the 14th Amendment is clear and automatically disqualifies Trump in the same way someone who isn’t 35 years old yet is automatically disqualified from the presidency for not meeting the minimum age requirement in the Constitution.
Stevens wrote in the lawsuit that the pertinent provision of the amendment “is a self-executing disqualification and operates in the same manner as the qualifications. The disqualification is not putative and therefore does not require any criminal conviction. Its execution is automatic in the same way that not meeting the explicit qualifications is automatically disqualifying. Further, it supersedes any claim of First Amendment protection.”
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed around the country seeking to disqualify Trump under the 14th Amendment.
One of the first was filed last summer by a Palm Beach County attorney Lawrence Caplan — and quickly dismissed by U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg in West Palm Beach, who ruled that Caplan and two other plaintiffs lacked the legal standing to bring the case.
The 14th Amendment theory has received lots of attention in recent months after legal scholars — including one of the nation’s preeminent conservative legal thinkers and members of the conservative Federalist Society — said the 14th Amendment unquestionably applies to Trump, and prohibits him from another term as president.
Stevens’ lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Broward County Circuit Court, utilizes that theory in asking the court to declare Trump is barred from seeking the presidency.
It quotes Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, the disqualification clause, automatically barring from service those who “having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof” unless Congress restores their right to hold office by a two-thirds vote.
Two legal scholars — William Baude of the University of Chicago Law School and Michael Stokes Paulsen of University of St. Thomas School of Law — wrote last year that a year of research led them to conclude that the 14th Amendment disqualifies Trump. Both are members of the Federalist Society, the incubator of conservative and limited-government legal thinking that has effectively become a requirement for judicial nominations during Trump’s presidency and in Florida under Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Also last year, J. Michael Luttig, a former federal appeals court judge and leading conservative thinker, and Laurence Tribe, a liberal professor emeritus of constitutional law at Harvard Law School, wrote that the 14th Amendment disqualifies Trump.
The Trump campaign vowed Tuesday to continue to “fight these bad-faith attempts to destroy American democracy and he looks forward to victory both in the state courts and in the presidential election this November.” He appealed the Maine ruling in state court on Tuesday and appealed the Colorado ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Trump’s lawyers argue the provision isn’t intended to apply to the president, contending that the oath for the top office in the land isn’t to “support” the Constitution but instead to “preserve, protect and defend” it. They also argue that the presidency isn’t explicitly mentioned in the amendment, only any “officer of the United States” — a legal term they contend doesn’t apply to the president.
Stevens, a Deerfield Beach resident, has set up an online fundraiser to help finance his effort. As of midafternoon Wednesday, it had raised $95 toward its goal of $10,000.
Stevens has received lots of publicity over the years, often for challenging religious displays and messages on government property.
Last month, a Broward Public Schools committee rejected Stevens’ request to have the Holy Bible removed from school libraries on the grounds it was “too sensitive or controversial” for public-school students. The Tallahassee Democrat reported he’d sent letters to almost all the state’s school superintendents challenging the Bible.
He also has previously sought to have a 6-foot penis statue installed in various communities. In Fort Lauderdale, he wanted the 300-pound pink penis statue installed in a public park near Fort Lauderdale beach.
He said at the time he was inspired by Japan’s Shinto Kanamara Matsuri (Festival of the Steel Phallus), an event held yearly in Kawasaki in celebration of love, fertility and the male genitalia. He argued that the statue would be a religious display, just like a Christmas tree or menorah, which had been shown at the same location.
He’s successfully had Festivus poles erected in government locations, including state capitols, that have had Christmas and Hanukkah displays. Festivus is a made-up holiday popularized by the old Seinfeld TV sitcom.
This report includes information from Sun Sentinel archives and from the Associated Press.