Colorado’s Supreme Court has declared that Donald Trump cannot run for president in the state next year. The decision is based on a constitutional insurrection clause.
The Colorado Supreme Court decided on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump can’t run for the White House in the state’s primary election. They based this on a part of the U.S. Constitution about insurrection. Now, it might go to the highest court in the country to figure out if Trump can still be in the race for the GOP nomination.
A panel of judges, appointed by Democratic governors, recently made a groundbreaking ruling. They invoked Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to disqualify a person from running for president, marking the first time this has occurred in history.
“In a 4-3 decision, the court stated that Trump is disqualified from being president according to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment,” clarified the court.
Colorado’s highest court reversed a ruling by a lower court judge who suggested that Trump incited the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021. The judge, however, stated that Trump couldn’t be kept off the ballot because it wasn’t clear if the rule applied to the presidency.
The Colorado court delayed its decision until January 4, or until the U.S. Supreme Court issues a ruling on the case.
The court’s majority expressed, “We don’t take these decisions lightly. We understand the significance of the questions at hand. Our duty is to apply the law impartially, without being swayed by public opinion or reactions to the decisions we are required to make.”
Trump’s legal team pledged to appeal any disqualification straight to the highest court, which has the final say on constitutional matters. Simultaneously, his campaign is actively preparing a response to the court’s decision.
In the 2020 election, Trump lost Colorado by 13 percentage points, and winning the state isn’t crucial for him in the upcoming presidential election. However, the concern for him is that other states might follow Colorado’s example and also exclude him from the ballot.
Colorado officials emphasize that a decision needs to be made by January 5, which is the deadline for the state to print its presidential primary ballots.
Numerous lawsuits nationwide aim to prevent Trump from running for office using Section 3. This provision was created to keep those who supported the Confederacy during the Civil War out of government. It states that if someone pledged to support the Constitution but later participated in a rebellion against it, they cannot hold office. Since the Civil War, this provision has been applied only a few times.
The Colorado case marks the first successful outcome for those who filed it. Following a weeklong hearing in November, Judge Sarah B. Wallace determined that Trump was involved in the Capitol attack on January 6, stating he “engaged in insurrection.” Despite this finding, her decision to keep him on the ballot had some technical aspects.
Trump’s legal team successfully argued before Judge Wallace that the language in Section 3, referring to “officers of the United States” taking an oath to “support” the Constitution, should not be applied to the president. They contended that the president is not explicitly designated as an “officer of the United States” elsewhere in the document, and his oath is to “preserve, protect, and defend” the Constitution.
The rule states that it includes positions such as senator, representative, electors for the president and vice president, and everyone else “under the United States.” However, it doesn’t explicitly mention the presidency.
Colorado’s highest court disagreed with a different perspective. Lawyers representing six Colorado voters, including Republicans and unaffiliated individuals, argued that it wouldn’t make sense to believe that the framers of the rule, who were concerned about former Confederates regaining power, would only prevent them from holding lower-level positions, not the highest one.
As attorney Jason Murray explained in December, “You’d be saying a rebel who took up arms against the government couldn’t be a county sheriff, but could be the president.”