Republican political figures in West Virginia are distressed over a federal lawsuit filed by a longshot presidential candidate aiming to keep former President Donald Trump off ballots on constitutional grounds that insurrectionist activity disqualifies him.
The legal concept is a swirling, high-minded debate about a constitutional issue dating back to the Reconstruction era.
The plaintiff is obscure.
And the Republican response to the lawsuit resulted in a press release frenzy. Several issued statements blasting the lawsuit as an effort to deprive Trump’s 2024 presidential ballot access in West Virginia, where he remains very popular. None directly addressed the constitutional eligibility question related to insurrection activities.
The lawsuit was filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, along with parallel efforts in other states. The man who filed it, John Anthony Castro, is a write-in Republican presidential candidate from Texas.
The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Irene Berger, and it has been referred to U.S. Magistrate Judge Omar Aboulhosn. The West Virginia Republican Party has filed to intervene in the case. Castro is serving as his own attorney and has filed for a temporary restraining order and an expedited preliminary injunction.
“The entire nation knows that Defendant Donald John Trump provided aid and comfort to the January 6th Insurrection,” Castro wrote in one of the filings. “The only remaining question is whether the federal judiciary has the courage to do the right thing. All evil needs in order to prevail is for good men and women to do nothing.”
The concept in the lawsuit is that Article 3 of the 14th Amendment disqualifies federal officeholders who “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” The amendment was passed in 1868 as a Civil War response.
The possibility of applying that to Trump gained steam after a pair of conservative legal scholars affiliated with the Federalist Society — William Baude of the University of Chicago and Michael Stokes Paulsen of the University of St. Thomas — endorsed the theory in the New York Times.
Laurence Tribe, a liberal constitutional scholar at Harvard Law School, and retired conservative judge J. Michael Luttig then joined forces in a magazine piece, “The Constitution prohibits Trump from ever being president again.”
The legal scholars contend the constitutional disqualification is self-executing and requires no legislation, criminal conviction, or other judicial action.
Still, as the concept has been discussed nationally, questions have persisted over how that would work in practice.
Castro has filed suit in states including New Hampshire, Florida, Utah, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The version in West Virginia names Trump as a defendant, along with Secretary of State Mac Warner in his official capacity as West Virginia’s chief elections officer.
Warner, who is a current candidate for governor, issued a statement this afternoon objecting to the grounds of the lawsuit.
“Every eligible candidate, including Donald Trump, has the constitutional right to have their name on West Virginia’s Primary Election ballot unless legally disqualified,” Warner stated.
“Seeking to remove voters’ opportunity to nominate a candidate to be the next President of the United States is not to be taken lightly. As West Virginia’s chief election official, every eligible candidate and registered voter can trust that I will follow and enforce the Constitution.”
The lawsuit includes several paragraphs meant to demonstrate Trump’s connection with insurrection activity following the 2020 presidential election, including a statement in a debate to the Proud Boys group to “stand back and stand by,” a videotaped statement following the Jan. 6 riots that “we love you; you’re very special” and a more recent statement by Trump indicating willingness to pardon people convicted in the Capitol riots.
Castro is a tax consultant who has run for office several times unsuccessfully. He ran as a Democrat in 2004 for a county court of commissioners position in Texas, finishing fifth of five. He ran as a Republican in 2020 for U.S. Senate from Texas, finishing fourth in a primary behind incumbent John Cornyn. Then in 2021, he ran as a Republican in a special election for House of Representatives, coming nowhere close to winning.
Castro was involved in a controversy as a Georgetown law student and later as an employer where Georgetown University Law Center’s job fair banned him over “deliberate misrepresentations on his resume.” The allegation was that he claimed to have graduated from West Point when he actually had dropped out of a related prep school instead.
He says he wants to be on the ballot in West Virginia and other states and claims Trump is inappropriately drawing away potential votes.
Many West Virginia Republicans were very upset about his federal court filing against Trump.
“This legal challenge is the latest assault on President Trump, his campaign, and his supporters,” stated West Virginia Republican Party Chairwoman Elgine McArdle in a press release.
“Voters in West Virginia and across the country deserve the opportunity to vote for their choice for president, whether the establishment and leftist jurists like it or not. What we’re seeing take place is shameful and wrong — but we will proudly enter into this litigation to deliver a victory for President Trump, our voters, and the rule of law.”
Congressman Alex Mooney, a Republican who is running for U.S. Senate, blamed the lawsuit on Democrats even though Castro has run several times as a Republican.
“Democrats will do anything to get ahead, even change election rules,” Mooney wrote on the social media site now known as X. “@realDonaldTrump will be on West Virginians’ ballots in 2024 because he’s the only one who will put our country on the right path. Democrats can keep cheating, we will hold them accountable and remind them that rules apply to liberals even though they ignore them.”
State Treasurer Riley Moore, a Republican who is running for Congress, also jumped in.
“The attempt by out-of-state liberals to remove President Trump from the ballot in West Virginia is not only pathetic, it is an insult to hard-working West Virginians,” Moore stated in a press release. “We have the right to decide who we will support next November. And it’s obvious we are going to once again support President Trump in overwhelming numbers.”
Incumbent Congresswoman Carol Miller, another Republican, issued a statement decrying “obvious obstruction of justice by Democrats across the United States.
“Democrats are terrified of having a candidate who will represent the American people, not Washington politicians. This latest attempt to strip West Virginians of their right to vote for who they want for president is shameful and I will not stand for it.”
Chris Miller, her son and an auto dealer who is running in the Republican primary for governor, appeared on radio today and blasted the lawsuit.
“The reason I’m calling is to talk about what real election interference is,” Miller said on “580 Live” on WCHS Radio.
“I’m sure you’ve seen by now this lawsuit that was filed in West Virginia by this crazy group of liberal people. They are literally trying to kick Donald Trump off of the ballot. And they’re doing this all around the country. It started in Texas.”
Miller continued, “I’m pretty confident that it’s not going to work in West Virginia. The question is, does it work anywhere else around the country?”
Attorney General candidate Ryan Weld, currently a Republican state senator from Brooke County, questioned the credibility of the man who filed the lawsuit.
“Castro is nothing but a fraud who believes that a West Virginia judge wouldn’t be smart enough to see through his attention-seeking scam,” Weld said in a press release.
Another candidate for Attorney General, Mike Stuart, also issued a press release opposing the lawsuit about Trump, calling the effort “anti-American and anti-democratic.”
“If successful, these terrible efforts will further divide the nation and create irreparable damage to the country,” stated Stuart, a Republican state senator from Kanawha County and a former campaign chairman for Trump in West Virginia.
“This is clear and transparent attempt to steal the 2024 election because they cannot beat him. I condemn these efforts. If they want to defeat President Trump and his America First agenda, they should beat him at the ballot box — not by abusive actions in the courts.”
Yet another Attorney General candidate, J.B. McCuskey, also released a statement critical of the lawsuit and maintaining Trump deserves to be on ballots. McCuskey is a Republican from Kanawha County who currently serves as state Auditor.
“West Virginia is Trump country and supports President Trump in his bid to return to the White House,” McCuskey stated on social media.
“To prevent him from appearing on the ballot, the Left has filed a lawsuit in West Virginia so you cannot vote for him.”