Colorado Supreme Court, in landmark ruling, bans Trump from state’s ballot under insurrection clause

Colorado Supreme Court, in landmark ruling, bans Trump from state’s ballot under insurrection clause
BY NICHOLAS RICCARDI | AP
Updated 4:49 PM MST, December 19, 2023

DENVER (AP) — A divided Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday declared former President Donald Trump ineligible for the White House under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause and removed him from the state’s presidential primary ballot, setting up a likely showdown in the nation’s highest court to decide whether the front-runner for the GOP nomination can remain in the race.

The decision from a court whose justices were all appointed by Democratic governors marks the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.

“A majority of the court holds that Trump is disqualified from holding the office of president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment,” the court wrote in its 4-3 decision.

Colorado’s highest court overturned a ruling from a district court judge who found that Trump incited an insurrection for his role in
the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but said he could not be barred from the ballot because it was unclear that the provision was intended to cover the presidency.

The court stayed its decision until Jan. 4, or until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the case.

“We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” wrote the court’s majority. “We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”

Trump’s attorneys had promised to appeal any disqualification immediately to the nation’s highest court, which has the final say about constitutional matters.

“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,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement Tuesday night.

Trump lost Colorado by 13 percentage points in 2020 and doesn’t need the state to win next year’s presidential election. But the danger for the former president is that more courts and election officials will follow Colorado’s lead and exclude Trump from must-win states.

Colorado officials say the issue must be settled by Jan. 5, the deadline for the state to print its presidential primary ballots.

Dozens of lawsuits have been filed nationally to disqualify Trump under Section 3, which was designed to keep former Confederates from returning to government after the Civil War. It bars from office anyone who swore an oath to “support” the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against it, and has been used only a handful of times since the decade after the Civil War.

The Colorado case is the first where the plaintiffs succeeded. After a weeklong hearing in November, District Judge Sarah B. Wallace found that Trump indeed had “engaged in insurrection” by inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and her ruling that kept him on the ballot was a fairly technical one.

Trump’s attorneys convinced Wallace that, because the language in Section 3 refers to “officers of the United States” who take an oath to “support” the Constitution, it must not apply to the president, who is not included as an “officer of the United States” elsewhere in the document and whose oath is to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution.

The provision also says offices covered include senator, representative, electors of the president and vice president, and all others “under the United States,” but doesn’t name the presidency.

The state’s highest court didn’t agree, siding with attorneys for six Colorado Republican and unaffiliated voters who argued that it was nonsensical to imagine the framers of the amendment, fearful of former Confederates returning to power, would bar them from low-level offices but not the highest one in the land.

“You’d be saying a rebel who took up arms against the government couldn’t be a county sheriff, but could be the president,” attorney Jason Murray said in arguments before the court in early December.

Trump’s attorneys argued unsuccessfully that the writers of the amendment expected the Electoral College to prevent former insurrectionists from becoming president.

They also had urged the Colorado high court to reverse Wallace’s ruling that Trump incited the Jan. 6 attack. His lawyers argued the then-president had simply been using his free speech rights and hadn’t called for violence. Trump attorney Scott Gessler also argued the attack was more of a “riot” than an insurrection.

That met skepticism from several of the justices.

“Why isn’t it enough that a violent mob breached the Capitol when Congress was performing a core constitutional function?” Justice William W. Hood III said during the Dec. 6 arguments. “In some ways, that seems like a poster child for insurrection.”

In the ruling issued Tuesday, the court’s majority dismissed the arguments that Trump wasn’t responsible for his supporters’ violent attack, which was intended to halt Congress’ certification of the presidential vote: “President Trump then gave a speech in which he literally exhorted his supporters to fight at the Capitol,” they wrote.

Colorado Supreme Court Justices Richard L. Gabriel, Melissa Hart, William W. Hood III and Monica Márquez ruled for the petitioners. Chief Justice Brian D. Boatright dissented, arguing the constitutional questions were too complex to be solved in a state hearing. Justices Maria E. Berkenkotter and Carlos Samour also dissented.

“Our government cannot deprive someone of the right to hold public office without due process of law,” Samour wrote in his dissent. “Even if we are convinced that a candidate committed horrible acts in the past — dare I say, engaged in insurrection — there must be procedural due process before we can declare that individual disqualified from holding public office.”

The Colorado ruling stands in contrast with the Minnesota Supreme Court, which last month decided that the state party can put anyone it wants on its primary ballot. It dismissed a Section 3 lawsuit but said the plaintiffs could try again during the general election.

In another 14th Amendment case, a Michigan judge ruled that Congress, not the judiciary, should decide whether Trump can stay on the ballot. That ruling is being appealed.

The liberal group behind those cases, Free Speech For People, also filed another lawsuit in Oregon seeking to bounce Trump from the ballot there. The Colorado case was filed by another liberal group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Both groups are financed by liberal donors who also support President Joe Biden. Trump has blamed the president for the lawsuits against him, even though Biden has no role in them, saying his rival is “defacing the constitution” to try to end his campaign

Out of 3,256,890 cast in the last general election here, only 1,364,604 went to Trump.

His name might not be on the preliminary repub ballot - no write-in names allowed, but in the general election, any name - including Trumps - could be written down and though he prolly wouldn't win, it would take an army of bean counters to check every ballot to see who any write in votes went for, before a winner in CO could be declared.

Can you imagine how long the list of names would be if we all just wrote our own names in???

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election_in_Colorado#Results

Trump is disqualified from Illinois ballot, judge rules
Reuters
Wed, February 28, 2024 at 5:11 PM MST·

(Reuters) -An Illinois state judge on Wednesday barred Donald Trump from appearing on the Illinois' Republican presidential primary ballot because of his role in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but she delayed her ruling from taking effect in light of an expected appeal by the former U.S. president.

Cook County Circuit Judge Tracie Porter sided with Illinois voters who argued that the former president should be disqualified from the state's March 19 primary ballot and its Nov. 5 general election ballot for violating the anti-insurrection clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment.

The final outcome of the Illinois case and similar challenges will likely be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard arguments related to Trump's ballot eligibility on Feb. 8.

Porter said she was staying her decision because she expected his appeal to Illinois' appellate courts, and a potential ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.

The advocacy group Free Speech For People, which spearheaded the Illinois disqualification effort, praised the ruling as a "historic victory" in a statement.

A campaign spokesperson for Trump, the national frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination, said in a statement this "is an unconstitutional ruling that we will quickly appeal."

Colorado and Maine earlier removed Trump from their state ballots after determining he is disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Both decisions are on hold while Trump appeals.

Section 3 bars from public office anyone who took an oath to support the U.S. Constitution and then has "engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."

Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, attacked police and swarmed the Capitol in a bid to prevent Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden's 2020 election victory. Trump gave an incendiary speech to supporters beforehand, telling them to go to the Capitol and "fight like hell." He then for hours did not act on requests that he urge the mob to stop.

The Supreme Court is currently weighing Trump's challenge to his Colorado disqualification. The justices in Washington appeared skeptical of the decision during oral arguments in the case, expressing concerns about states taking sweeping actions that could affect the national election.

Donald Trump cleared to run for president after Supreme Court victory
Susie Coen, The Telegraph | 2 minutes ago

Donald Trump cannot be banned from running for president and will appear on the ballot in Tuesday’s Colorado primary, America’s highest court has ruled.

The Supreme Court ruling is a victory for the former president who is expected to sew up the Republican nomination during the Super Tuesday contest.

While Monday’s ruling is specific to Colorado, it will set a precedent for other states including Illinois and Maine which also barred him from primary ballots.

Last year, Mr Trump was ruled ineligible by the Colorado Supreme Court for his alleged encouragement of the Jan 6 riot at the Capitol in 2021 and efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Mr Trump appealed the ruling on Jan 3 and the court heard arguments last month.

The Colorado Republican Party had requested that the Supreme Court rule before Tuesday’s primary contest.

‘A pretty daunting consequence’
Monday’s decision was largely expected after both Republican and Democrat judges expressed concern about individual states having the power to decide the presidential election during last month’s two-hour court session.

During the hearing, Chief Justice John Robert, a Republican, said if the Colorado decision is upheld, other states will proceed with disqualification proceedings of their own for either Democratic or Republican candidates

“And it will come down to just a handful of states that are going to decide the presidential election. That’s a pretty daunting consequence,” he added.

Mr Trump did not attend the session, but told reporters he had listened to the hearing and thought “it was a very beautiful process” and he thought his team’s “arguments were very, very strong”.

Anti-Trump forces have sought to disqualify him in more than two dozen other states – a mostly unsuccessful effort – over the Capitol attack.