The Colorado Supreme Court has declared that Donald Trump cannot run for president in the state next year as a result of his participation in the 2021 attack on the US Capitol, and has ordered that his name be removed from the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot.
The 77-year-old former president was disqualified on Tuesday under the 14th Amendment, which states that officials who take an oath to protect the US Constitution are barred from future office if they “engaged in insurrection.”
Trump is now the front-runner in the Republican Party’s nomination process for the 2024 presidential election. Trump’s team has promised to take the “flawed” Colorado Supreme Court verdict to the United States Supreme Court.
The Colorado Supreme Court acknowledged a trial judge’s ruling that Trump committed rebellion on January 6, 2021, and reversed her determination that the ban does not extend to the president.
According to CBS News, the unprecedented ruling by the split top state court is the first time a court has deemed Trump unable to return to the White House due to his actions following the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
According to the court, no presidential contender has ever been disqualified under the Civil War-era constitutional clause.
The state high court postponed its decision until January 4, a day before the state secretary’s deadline to certify candidates for Colorado’s March 5 primary election.
The Colorado Supreme Court’s 4-3 decision does not extend outside of the state.
“President Trump’s direct and express efforts, over several months, exhorting his supporters to march to the Capitol to prevent what he falsely characterised as an alleged fraud on the people of this country were indisputably overt and voluntary,” judges of the Supreme Court concluded.
“Moreover,” they went on to say, “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.”
“We conclude that because President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Secretary to list President Trump as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot.,” according to the judgment.
The ruling comes after a months-long state challenge to the former president’s ballot eligibility under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which states that former officeholders are ineligible to run again if they took an oath to support the Constitution and then engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” against the US.
According to ABC News, the judgment also dismissed Trump’s appeal on 11 points and said that his conduct on January 6, including a speech outside the White House that morning, were not covered by First Amendment free speech rights.
Trump has denied any involvement
Trump has denied any culpability in connection with the January 6 insurgency and has condemned the 14th Amendment cases as a misuse of the judicial system. He is facing federal and state charges in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden, and he has pleaded not guilty.
Trump has dismissed the Colorado 14th Amendment challenge, as well as similar cases filed against him around the country, as unfounded and anti-democratic. A Trump official has promised an appeal, and the campaign has already begun fundraising in response to the judgment.
According to US media sources, spokesperson Steven Cheung stated in a statement, “The Colorado Supreme Court issued a completely flawed decision tonight …. We have full confidence that the US Supreme Court will quickly rule in our favour and finally put an end to these unAmerican lawsuits.”
President Biden’s re-election campaign representatives declined to comment on the Colorado judgment. However, a top Democratic campaign official told CBS News that the ruling will benefit Democrats by reinforcing their position that the US Capitol riot was an attempted insurgency.
Trump was defeated by a large margin in the state of Colorado in the 2020 presidential election. However, if judges in additional competitive states followed Tuesday’s verdict, Trump’s 2024 presidential candidacy might face major challenges.
So far, Trump has faced several 14th Amendment challenges in various states. Lawsuits citing the 14th Amendment were dismissed by nine courts, including the Michigan Supreme Court, the district court in Colorado (which led to the appeals battle), the Minnesota Supreme Court, a district court in Washington, and federal courts in Arizona, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Florida, according to reports.
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