WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump is facing the first legal challenge to his eligibility to run for president in 2024 since declaring his candidacy, only weeks after a congressional committee investigating the U.S. Capitol attack suggested he be disqualified from ever holding office again.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in Florida by John Anthony Castro, an attorney in Texas. Castro, like the former president, is seeking the Republican nomination for 2024 and has registered his campaign with the Federal Election Commission. He’s asking a judge to declare Trump constitutionally ineligible to hold office and to order a halt to any campaigning and fundraising.
Castro’s case is the first of what’s expected to be more efforts to try to block Trump from running under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which bars someone from continuing to hold public office if they engage in insurrection.
