CONCORD, NH — New Hampshire is the first state to have a lawsuit filed to determine whether former president Donald Trump should be allowed on the state’s ballot.

John Anthony Castro, a 2024 Republican candidate for president, filed the case against Trump on Aug. 27 in Merrimack Superior Court.

In the lawsuit, Castro claims Trump provided aid and assistance to rioters during the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and that under Section 3 of the 14th amendment he should be disqualified from seeking public office.

According to the Associated Press, the 14th Amendment bars from office anyone who once took an oath to uphold the Constitution but then “engaged” in “insurrection or rebellion” against it. A growing number of legal scholars say the post-Civil War clause applies to Trump after his role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election and encouraging his backers to storm the U.S. Capitol.

The issue was given ammunition by an article published on Aug. 14 by William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen which reported that Trump was guilty of violating the 14th Amendment.

In their article, scheduled to be published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Baude and Paulsen said they believe the meaning is clear.

“Taking Section Three seriously means excluding from present or future office those who sought to subvert lawful government authority under the Constitution in the aftermath of the 2020 election,” they write.

In 2021, the nonprofit Free Speech For People sent letters to the top election official in all 50 states requesting Trump’s removal if he were to run again for the presidency, according to the Associated Press. The group’s legal director, Ron Fein, noted that after years of silence, officials are beginning to discuss the matter.

“The framers of the 14th Amendment learned the bloody lesson that, once an oath-breaking insurrectionist engages in insurrection, they can’t be trusted to return to power,” Fein said.

Castro said he has been working on his lawsuit strategy for a long time. He started by suing the Federal Election Commission in June 2022. He was told in that case that the FEC was not the entity that directly caused any wrongdoing, and that he had to narrow his lawsuit’s focus.

“(The judge) laid the groundwork to direct the case in (Trump’s) direction,” Castro said.

Castro said while New Hampshire is the first suit he’s filing in this battle, it won’t be the last. As of Aug. 31, he has filed suits in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin. At the time of reporting, he had not finished filing his Georgia lawsuit.

The plan, Castro said, is to start with lawsuits in each of the key swing states from the 2020 election, ones he said he believes will be important in the 2024 election.

“After the wheels get turning on each (lawsuit) and we get the bureaucratic part done, we’re filing in all 50 states,” Castro said. “The goal is to completely overwhelm (Trump).”

Castro isn’t the only one looking at the possibility of a lawsuit.

Bryant “Corky” Messner, a New Hampshire candidate who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2020, said he would also consider bringing a lawsuit if the time was right, but that now isn’t the right time.

“It’s premature,” Messner said. “As things exist right now, I don’t believe there’s a dispute case or controversy. I think these lawsuits being filed now are really diminishing the significance.”

The New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan and Attorney General John Formella put out a joint statement on Tuesday, saying that they aren’t taking a position on the potential applicability of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. The Attorney General’s office, officials said, is reviewing legal issues involved in the case.

According to Messner, taking time to parse through the legal arguments before filing a lawsuit is exactly what should be happening. To him, the suit that’s been filed has happened too soon and without enough legal support.

“We want to be conscientious and careful and do this the right way,” Messner said. “There are procedural complexities around this in our legal system. I think those procedural complexities will in fact make it difficult.”

Castro said he’s feeling even more heat from the Republican Party now that he’s filed suit to block Trump from the ballot, but he said he doesn’t care. The New Hampshire Republican Party admonished Castro’s lawsuit.

“Efforts to deny New Hampshire Republican primary voters a full slate of options are antithetical to our Live Free or Die spirit,” said Chris Ager in a statement published on Monday. “The New Hampshire State Republican Party will fight all efforts to eliminate candidates from our Primary ballot.”

Castro said he anticipated the comments, and knows that his future lawsuits will receive more backlash from the GOP.

“This is the definition of a political kamikaze move, but I feel like I’ll be on the winning side when the dust settles,” he said.

Katelyn Sahagian can be contacted at ksahagian@northofboston.com. The Associated Press was used in this report.