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Donald Trump Hasn't Violated Twenty-Second Amendment

Magistrate Judge rejects plaintiff's theory that, because President Trump has claimed he was the rightful winner in 2020, he was therefore ineligible in 2024.

|The Volokh Conspiracy |


From today's Findings and Recommendation by Magistrate Judge Jeremy Peterson in Wilson v. Trump:

Plaintiff's sole claim is that defendant has violated the Twenty-Second Amendment. This amendment states that "[n]o person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice."

As I previously stated in recommending that plaintiff's motion for a TRO be denied, "Trump was elected President in 2016 and 2024. In 2020, Joe Biden was elected President." Defendant states as much in his motion to dismiss.

Plaintiff's only argument in opposition is that because defendant has claimed that he "won the 2020 election," then defendant was elected President in 2020. However, as defendant acknowledges, he has made "public statements expressing disagreement with, criticism of, [and] skepticism about the 2020 election." Such statements do not support the finding that defendant was elected President in 2020. On the contrary, Joe Biden was elected in 2020 and served that presidential term.

Eugene Volokh is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, and the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA School of Law. Naturally, his posts here (like the opinions of the other bloggers) are his own, and not endorsed by any institution. He is also the co-host of the Free Speech Unmuted podcast.