Following President Joe Biden’s unprecedented decision to withdraw from the 2024 election on Sunday, a long-shot legal battle to contest his decision is already underway.
Following the presidential debate last month, which served as the impetus for the president’s decision to withdraw his candidacy, the Heritage Foundation has been spearheading the threat of legal action. On June 21, the group released a letter on the subject. Although there are still doubts about whether Biden’s efforts to unite Democrats around VP Kamala Harris would be fruitful, the letter warned of a “contentious road” to Biden’s replacement on the ballot.
In a brief post on X, the Oversight Project advised readers to “stay tuned” for updates about their attempts to challenge the president’s decision to withdraw from the race.
“We have spent months getting ready for this moment… Numerous media outlets attempted to discredit us. Now who’s laughing? The report stated that there will be no more impromptu elections.
Litigation to challenge Biden’s sudden campaign suspension is now in the planning stages, with ideas and methods being considered. According to a source who spoke with the Washington Examiner, the Oversight Project plans to limit all information about prospective challenges to court papers and statements made on social media.
Although it is unclear currently where lawsuits could be filed, the memo published last month indicated that if Biden is not the nominee, there might be legal action in Georgia, Nevada, and Wisconsin. Election law experts, however, have refuted this, arguing that Biden never formally named the Democratic ticket’s nominee and that his withdrawal occurred well in advance of the state’s ballot certification deadlines.
In a recent blog post, Rick Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, stated that it seemed hopeless, if not completely meaningless, to challenge the replacement candidate on state election ballots.
Assuming that a state law was to compel Biden to appear on the ballot—which I’m not even sure is possible—I anticipate that legal action would put the party’s real nominee there, according to Hasen. “There are situations that support the long-standing concept that voters should have the freedom to select the party’s nominee.”
Veteran Democratic Party attorney Marc Elias, who confirmed on Sunday that the “Democratic nominee will be on all 50 state ballots,” is among the litigators who will seek to oppose any legal attempt to halt the substitution of a new Democratic candidate.
“There isn’t anything to oppose legally,” Elias continued.
While conservative organizations like the Heritage Foundation are currently contesting a candidate’s legitimacy, earlier this year, Democratic organizations were unable to remove Trump from the race.
The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 to keep Trump on all state election ballots in a lawsuit originating in Colorado and brought by the liberal Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. This decision came after a small group of voters claimed that Trump’s alleged involvement in the January 6 riot justified his removal from office under the 14th Amendment.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) alluded to potential legal challenges to Joe Biden’s removal before the abrupt withdrawal letter that Biden sent out on Sunday, but he did not provide a specific legal plan.
Observing that 14 million people voted for Biden in the primary, he said on CNN, “I think they’ve had legal obstacles in some of these states.” “And I anticipate that there will be litigation over it.”
Jaime Harrison, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, suggested on Sunday that a public convention will choose Biden’s replacement, even if Harris emerges as the front-runner. Chicago will host the Democratic National Convention from August 19–22.
