Trump Disqualified From Presidential Ballot, Colorado Supreme Court Rules
AP Photo/Artie Walker Jr.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump be removed from the state’s 2024 presidential ballot.
Petitioners argued that Trump is ineligible for the presidency because he ran afoul of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
“President Trump is disqualified from holding office of the President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the court stated in its opinion.
The court ruled that Trump’s actions before and during the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot meet the criteria for insurrection. Citing his speech in Washington, D.C. that morning, the court concluded his remarks “were a call to his supporters to fight and that his supporters responded to that call.”
The opinion explained:
We conclude that the foregoing evidence, the great bulk of which was undisputed at trial, established that President Trump engaged in insurrection. President Trump’s direct and express efforts, over several months, exhorting his supporters to march to the Capitol to prevent what he falsely characterized as an alleged fraud on the people of this country were indisputably overt and voluntary. Moreover, the evidence amply showed that President Trump undertook all these actions to aid and further a common unlawful purpose that he himself conceived and set in motion: prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election and stop the peaceful transfer of power.
The ruling reverses a decision by state Judge Sarah Wallace, who last month said that while the riot does “easily satisfy” the definition of “insurrection,” the amendment does not explicitly list the presidency and vice presidency in its list of offices that are off limits to insurrectionists.
Trump’s campaign responded promptly and said it will appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The Colorado Supreme Court issued a completely flawed decision tonight and we will swiftly file an appeal to the United States Supreme Court and a concurrent request for a stay of this deeply undemocratic decision,” a campaign spokesman said in a statement. “We have full confidence that the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly rule in our favor and finally put an end to these unAmerican lawsuits.”
Trump lost Colorado in the general in 2016 and 2020 by five and 13.5 points respectively. More imminently, the state’s Republican primary is on Super Tuesday, March 5, 2024. The former president holds massive polling leads in early primary and caucus states.
This is a developing story.
