The Colorado Supreme Court is removing former President Donald Trump from the primary ballot, saying he is ineligible to be president.
In a stunning and unprecedented decision, the Colorado Supreme Court removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot, ruling that he isn’t an eligible presidential candidate because of the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban.”
“Even when the siege on the Capitol was fully underway, he continued to support it by repeatedly demanding that Vice President (Mike) Pence refuse to perform his constitutional duty and by calling Senators to persuade them to stop the counting of electoral votes.
“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.”
Ratified after the Civil War, the 14th Amendment says officials who take an oath to support the Constitution are banned from future office if they “engaged in insurrection.” But the wording is vague, it doesn’t explicitly mention the presidency, and has only been applied twice since 1919.
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 campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.
Chief Justice Brian Boatright, one of the three dissenters on the seven-member court, wrote that he believes Colorado election law “was not enacted to decide whether a candidate engaged in insurrection,” and said he would have dismissed the challenge to Trump’s eligibility.
LINKS
AP: Colorado Supreme Court bans Trump from the state’s ballot under Constitution’s insurrection clause | @negativenull@startrek.website
Washington Post: Donald Trump is barred from Colorado’s 2024 primary ballot, the state Supreme Court rules | @silence7@slrpnk.net
CNBC: Colorado Supreme Court disqualifies Trump from 2024 ballot, pauses ruling to allow appeal | @return2ozma
NBC News: Colorado Supreme Court kicks Donald Trump off the state's 2024 ballot for violating the U.S. Constitution. | 18-24-61-B-17-17-4
CNN: Colorado Supreme Court removes Trump from 2024 ballot | A Phlaming Phoenix
CNN:Colorado Supreme Court removes Trump from 2024 ballot based on 14th Amendment’s ‘insurrectionist ban’ | @Boddhisatva
New York Times: Trump Is Disqualified From the 2024 Ballot, Colorado Supreme Court Rules | @silence7@slrpnk.net
They're calling it an "unprecedented decision", but I like to think of it as a "precedent-setting decision".
"Did the former president try to overthrow the government, and should he be allowed to be the president again?" is an unprecedented question, of course the answer will be unprecedented
..... so far
American politics have a recent habit of reacting in unprecedented ways to unprecedented events and creating more unprecedented events.
While the rest of the world looks at them devolve into a fascist state in obvious ways as the American participants continue to participate in ever more complicated mental gymnastics
I will also accept an “un-presidented decision.”
When they make the Trump biography TV series, I want it to be called "Un-Presidented".
I'm in favor of this, because fuck trump, but I give it 1 election cycle until this process is abused and weaponized. I don't think this precedent will change things for the better.
I mean, I think as long as no one else does an insurrection, we're probably fine? The text of this is quite specific, applying this law required a previous decision to legally declare that Trump committed an insurrection. The specificity of this is probably actually what gets the ruling overturned. The text doesn't call out the president specifically in the way that it calls out electors, congress people, etc.
"...or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State,"
The district court ruling actually followed your line of thinking, that because the president is specifically called out, that office is exempt from this clause. The state supreme court referenced many documents contemporary to the writing of the 14th amendment indicating that is not the case, and the present absolutely falls under "any office under the United States".
Link to full text: https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/amendment-14/section-3/
Yeah, I think it's pretty clear that the president shouldn't be immune even based on the text of the article itself, just with this US SC, I don't trust that they are going logically interpret the article. There's a podcast called Strict Scrutiny that covers the court with legal experts hosting, but in a fairly approachable manner, and basically this court is just pulling things out of their ass. They're not even consistent in their own court, much less adhering to previous court doctrine.