January 10, 2024 |
Photo – Former President Donald Trump – Courtesy History.com
A judge in Albany County threw out a case brought by a retired Laramie attorney that sought to keep both former President Donald J. Trump and U.S. Senator Cynthia M. Lummis, R-Wyo., off future Wyoming ballots.
The case was dismissed without prejudice. The case mirrored similar attempts in several other states that lean on the so-called “disqualification clause” in Section 3 of the 14th amendment to ban the former president from appearing on state ballots. Ratified in 1868 following the Civil War, Section 3 bars from government any elected official “who has engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against government. The office of president is specifically omitted from the text of the section.
A lawsuit in Colorado, based on the same argument, was affirmed by that state’s highest court. Although the judges on the Colorado Supreme Court are all Democrats, the 4-3 split decision is headed for review by the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 8.
On Nov. 1, 2023, Laramie-based attorney Tim Newcomb filed a lengthy complaint, asking for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief in the form of the permanent removal of Trump and Lummis from all Wyoming ballots. He also asked for compensation for attorney’s fees.
The crux of Newcomb’s argument came from a claim that Trump violated his oath to “defend and support the Constitution against domestic enemies” through his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and refusal to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election. Through her support of the former president and refusal to certify certain election results as a sitting U.S. Senator, Newcomb said Lummis also broke her oath.
The complaint cited more than 250 sources to support his claim that Trump stoked the crowd gathered in Washington, D.C., and that his conduct led to the deaths of five individuals on Jan. 6, 2021, at least partially enabled by Lummis’s support of him.
Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray is the defendant named in the case, due to his office’s role in presiding over statewide elections. The Secretary filed a motion to dismiss on Dec. 7, calling the lawsuit a “blatant and radical (attempt) to interfere with Wyoming’s elections.”
The case was handled by Albany County District Judge Misha Westby, who dismissed the case on mostly procedural grounds. In an order published Thursday, she said that the complaint was not timely enough.
Since Lummis is not up for re-election until 2026, Westby said that the request for Lummis to be removed from Wyoming ballots was especially premature.
Judge Westby wrote that the case was filed before there is any certainty about who actually will be on the ballot. “The Plaintiff does not allege in his complaint that either individual is currently named on a Wyoming ballot.”
The judge dismissed the case without prejudice but left open the opportunity for Newcomb or another party to file a similar lawsuit closer to either official’s election.
