Magistrate judge recommends slowing roll on Trump ballot access … – West Virginia MetroNews
A federal magistrate judge is already prepared to deal a serious blow to a lawsuit aiming to keep former President Donald Trump off ballots in West Virginia.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Omar Aboulhosn has recommended denying an emergency application for a hearing on a temporary restraining order and an expedited preliminary injunction. The plaintiff had also asked for a concurrent bench trial on the merits, and that is doubtful too.
Aboulhosn suggests there’s no reason to rush into those decisions and that the plaintiff hasn’t demonstrated that “an immediate and irreparable injury will occur” before the defendants, including Trump’s representatives, have had a chance to weigh in.
Aboulhosn’s recommendation isn’t necessarily the last word. He was assigned to make preliminary recommendations on filings in the case, but the ultimate authority is with U.S. District Judge Irene Berger. The parties in the case have two weeks to file any objections.
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 filing touched off a frenzy among Republican political figures in West Virginia, with statement after statement arguing against voters being deprived of Trump as a ballot option.
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.
Aboulhosn’s filing laid that question aside for now.
“This Court need not resolve this issue at this time, that is whether Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment provides the Plaintiff with a cause of action against a fellow candidate under these circumstances,” he wrote.
Instead, the magistrate judge focused on whether the circumstances surrounding the election in West Virginia need to be resolved at an aggressive pace.
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.
He says he wants to be on the ballot in West Virginia and the other states and claims Trump is inappropriately drawing away potential votes.
Aboulhosn, in an 11-page filing, focused on whether Castro has truly demonstrated that he faces imminent harm:
“Although he may be correct that ‘votes cannot be redistributed once cast’ and ‘financial contributions cannot be refunded once given,’ the Plaintiff does not indicate what specific votes or contributions have been or will be siphoned off from his campaign during the expediated timeline he has requested: the Plaintiff asserts that both he and Defendant Trump are ‘pursuing the same voter and donor pies’ – but this is an insufficient showing of immediate and irreparable injury.
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.
His social media account is filled with statements to say his efforts will make Electoral College math impossible for Trump, and he sounded off on the judge he drew in West Virginia.
We got U.S. District Court Judge Irene C. Berger, an African-American woman appointed by Obama, in West Virginia and now the entire state is loosing their minds! 😂
Deal with it MFers.https://t.co/wuGct6DOqa
— 🇺🇸 John Anthony Castro (@realJohnACastro) September 27, 2023
West Virginia Republicans offered up a blitz of response to the lawsuit, with many calling it an effort by “the Left” or by Democrats. Most contended West Virginia voters are entitled to a full array of ballot options, including Trump.
Warner, the chief elections officer who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, issued a statement 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,” stated Warner, a Republican candidate for governor.
“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.”
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