Trump is disqualified from the 2024 ballot, the Colorado Supreme Court rules

Former President Donald J. Trump is not eligible to run for office, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, accepting the argument that the 14th Amendment disqualifies him in an explosive decision that could upset the 2024 election.

In a lengthy statement The justices ordered Colorado’s secretary of state to bar Mr. Trump from the Republican primary. The justices last month reversed a Denver district judge’s finding that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — which disqualifies people who engage in an insurrection against the Constitution after they take an oath to support it from office — was not applies to the presidency.

They affirmed the district judge’s other key conclusions: that Mr. Trump’s actions before and on January 6, 2021 amounted to engaging in an insurrection, and that courts had the authority to enforce Section 3 against a person who did not inform Congress specifically designated.

“A majority of the Court finds that President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the court wrote in a 4-to-3 ruling. “Because he has been disqualified, it would be an unlawful act under election law for the Colorado Secretary of State to list him as a candidate for the presidential primary election.”

“We do not come to these conclusions lightly,” the majority wrote. “We are aware of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are also aware of our solemn obligation to apply the law, without fear or favour, and without being influenced by public reactions to the decisions that the law requires us to make.”

Trump will appeal to the US Supreme Court, his campaigner wrote in a statement.

Tuesday’s ruling applies only to Colorado, but if the Supreme Court were to uphold it, he could be disqualified more broadly. The Colorado Supreme Court postponed its ruling until January 4, 2024, to give Trump time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. If he does so, the ruling could be stayed longer while the proceedings play out.

The Colorado Supreme Court is the first court to rule that the disqualification clause applies to Mr. Trump, an argument his opponents have made across the country. Similar lawsuits in Minnesota and New Hampshire were rejected on procedural grounds. A Michigan judge ruled last month that the issue was political and not for him to decide, and an appeals court upheld the decision not to disqualify him. The plaintiffs there have appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court.

Tuesday’s ruling “is not only historic and justified, but is necessary to protect the future of democracy in our country,” Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in a statement. His organization represented voters who wanted to disqualify Mr. Trump.

Mr Trump’s campaign has denounced the ruling.

“It is not surprising that the Democratic-appointed Colorado Supreme Court has ruled against President Trump, supporting a Soros-funded left-wing group’s plan to interfere in elections on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden by removing President Trump’s name from the ballot and eliminate the election. rights of Colorado voters to vote for the candidate of their choice,” said campaign spokesman Steven Cheung. “We are confident that the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly rule in our favor and finally put an end to these un-American lawsuits.”

The case hinged on several questions: Was it an insurrection when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election? If so, did Mr. Trump participate in that insurrection through his advance messages to his supporters, his speech that morning, and his Twitter posts during the attack? Do courts have the authority to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment without congressional action? And does Article 3 apply to the presidency?

Judge Sarah B. Wallace, who made the ruling of the subdistrict court judge in Colorado, had said yes to all questions except the last question.

Because Section 3 enumerates various offices but not the presidency, and because the presidential oath is worded differently than the oath of the enumerated offices, Judge Wallace concluded that the broad term “officers of the United States” was not intended to include the presidency . The Colorado Supreme Court disagreed.

“We do not give the same weight as the court does to the fact that the presidency is not specifically mentioned in Section Three,” the justices wrote. “It seems very likely that the presidency is not specifically mentioned because it is so clearly an ‘office’.”