Who is Norma Anderson? The 91-year-old lawmaker leading the 14th Amendment lawsuit against Trump
The first successful challenge to Trump being on the presidential ballot came out of Colorado. Among the plaintiffs was a former GOP state legislator.
The issue of whether Trump can be kicked off the 2024 presidential election ballot will be up to the Supreme Court. The nine justices will determine if a ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court barring the former president should stand.
In a 4-3 decision in December, the majority found that Trump had incited, and thus “engaged”, in the January 6 insurrection and consequently under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment he was disqualified from seeking the presidency. There have been challenges in at least 36 states along the same line of argument according to the New York Times.
However, in December, Colorado was the first where one was successful, Maine’s Secretary of State determined that Trump couldn’t be on the ballot later that month. The case in the Rocky Mountain State was brought by a six Republican and independent voters. Among them was the lead plaintiff, a trailblazing former GOP legislator, Norma Anderson.
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Who is Norma Anderson? The 91-year-old lawmaker leading the 14th Amendment against Trump
Norma Anderson is a lifelong Republican who served in the Colorado legislature for twenty years. She joined the state House of Representatives in 1987 and was the majority leader of the lower chamber from 1997 to 1998.
The following year she became a state senator and in 2003 became the majority leader in the upper chamber. She was the first female to hold both senior positions in Colorado.
She considers herself “an old-fashioned Republican that believes in strong defense, supporting business, and helping those who don’t know how to help themselves, and less government, and a fair tax base.” She has long been skeptical of Trump, but the events of January 6 were a bridge too far.
“I was born four months before FDR was elected. I’ve lived through a lot of presidents. Some I liked, some I didn’t. But not one of them caused an insurrection, until Donald Trump,” Anderson told CNN.
Trump v. Anderson
The lawsuit seeking to strike former President Trump from the ballot in Colorado was first brought against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who controls ballot access in the state. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) approached Anderson to be a plaintiff in the watchdog organization’s lawsuit in Colorado.
The basis of the argument is that Trump should not be on the Republican ballot being barred from holding public office again under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. The post-Civil War statute prohibits insurrectionists from holding public office.
A US district judge found that Trump had “engaged in insurrection” by inciting the violent assault on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. However, Judge Sarah Wallace found that despite this, the 14th Amendment did not apply in the case of Trump because “president” was absent from the list of positions to which the provision applies along with the specific oath he had taken as such.
The Colorado Supreme Court though contradicted that in their ruling citing a conversation between the authors of the language in the ratification of the 14th Amendment. When Senator Reverdy Johnson asked why the offices of President and Vice President were omitted, Senator Lot Morrill replied, “Let me call the Senator’s attention to the words ‘or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States.’”
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