“Even before [the Baude-Paulsen article], liberal legal groups had begun researching state laws and working with voters who could challenge Trump’s access to the ballot. …
“’The American public should expect to see a series of challenges filed in state after state,”’ says Ron Fein, legal director of one such group, Free Speech for People.
“Challenges likely will come toward the end of this year and early next year, as the deadlines hit for candidates to file for the ballot, and could dominate the early months of the primary season.
“’People are not anticipating how pervasive these will be,’ said Notre Dame law professor Derek Muller, an election law expert. …
“One central question is whether Congress needs to pass a law to enforce the ban. Shortly after the amendment took effect, a federal appeals court held that was the case, but the [Baude-Paulsen article] strongly disputed that. …
[Michael McConnell’s slippery-slope concern] misses the point, says Brianne Gorod, chief counsel of the D.C.-based Constitutional Accountability Center, which took part in an effort to disqualify former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) from office because of his support for the Jan. 6 attack.
“’Simply because there might be close cases in the future does not mean that we should shirk from enforcing Section 3 today in cases arising out of Jan. 6 that are not close,’ she said. ‘If we were to let ‘slippery slope’ concerns prevent us from enforcing this provision as broadly as its text and history require, it could effectively turn this critically important provision of our Constitution into a dead letter.’ …
“Typically, challenges to a candidate’s eligibility don’t come until after the candidate has officially filed for the election, and candidates often wait until close to the filing deadline to handle that task, said Muller.
“In this presidential election cycle, candidate filing deadlines begin with Nevada on Oct. 16 and then multiply in November and December, meaning that a wave of challenges to Trump’s eligibility likely will start hitting election officials around the country late this year, especially in Democratic-majority states where challengers may hope for a favorable ruling that could propel the issue rapidly to the Supreme Court.
“Once a challenge is filed, there’s pressure to resolve it fast so states can print their ballots.
“’There’s not a lot of time,’ Muller said, and the process is ‘not ideal.’ The state officials — ballot commissions in some states, secretaries of state in others — ‘are not really set up for something like this.’
“’But that’s the way the system is set up,’ he added.