The Supreme Court of Colorado (USA) declared this Tuesday, December 19, former President Donald Trump ineligible for the White House for his role in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, under the insurrection clause of the United States Constitution. It also removed him from the state's 2024 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.
In a ruling unprecedented in American historys, the justices appealed to the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits people who have participated in an insurrection from holding elected office.
The decision by the Colorado state court, whose judges 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 the ruling of a district judge who found that Trump incited an insurrection for his role in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, but not that he was disqualified from participating in the elections, a ruling that was appealed.
“We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” the court's majority wrote. “We are aware of the magnitude and weight of the issues before us. We are also aware of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being influenced by public reaction to the decisions that the law forces us to do. to take”.
Trump's lawyers had promised to immediately appeal any disqualification to the country's highest court.which has the final say on constitutional matters.
“The Colorado Supreme Court issued a completely erroneous decision tonight and we will quickly file an appeal to the United States Supreme Court and a concurrent request to stay this deeply undemocratic decision,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said. in a statement on Tuesday.
A possible 'domino effect'
Trump lost Colorado by 13 percentage points in 2020 and would not need that 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 in other states.
Colorado officials say the issue must be resolved by Jan. 5, deadline for the state to print its presidential primary ballots.
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed across the country to disqualify Trump under Section 3, which was designed to prevent former Confederates from returning to government after the Civil War. The section prohibits access to office by anyone who swore an oath to “support” the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against it.and has only been used a handful of times since the decade after the Civil War.
The Colorado ruling contrasts with that of the Minnesota Supreme Court, which last month decided that parties can include whomever they want on their primary ballot. Thus, he rejected using Section 3, but said that the plaintiffs could try again during the general election.
In another case involving the 14th Amendment, a Michigan judge ruled that Congress, not the judiciary, should decide whether Trump can remain on the ballot. That ruling is being appealed.
The liberal group behind these cases, Free Speech For People, also filed another lawsuit in Oregon seeking to remove Trump from the ballot. The Colorado case was brought by another liberal group: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Both groups are funded 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 “disfiguring the Constitution” to try to kill his campaign.
Technical disagreements
The Colorado case is the first in which the plaintiffs have been successful. After a week-long hearing in November, District Judge Sarah B. Wallace considered that Trump had “engaged in an insurrection” by inciting the January 6 attack on the Capitoland their decision to keep it on the ballot was quite technical.
Trump's lawyers convinced Wallace that since the language of Section 3 refers to “officials of the United States” who swear to “support” the Constitution, it should not apply to the president, who is not listed as an “official of the United States.” United” nowhere else in the document and whose oath is to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution.
The provision also says that the offices covered include senator, representative, electors of the president and vice president, and all others “under the United States,” but it does not name the Presidency.
The state's highest court disagreed, siding with lawyers for six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters who argued that it made no sense to imagine that the amendment's authors, fearful of former Confederates returning to power , They were prohibited from holding low-level positions but not the highest in the country.
“It would be like saying that a rebel who took up arms against the government cannot be sheriff of the county, but he can be president,” attorney Jason Murray said in court arguments in early December.
Trump's lawyers argued unsuccessfully that the amendment's drafters hoped the Electoral College would prevent former insurrectionists from becoming president.
They had also urged Colorado's high court to overturn Wallace's ruling that Trump incited the Jan. 6 attack. His lawyers argued that the then-president had simply exercised his right to free speech and had not called for violence. Trump attorney Scott Gessler also argued that the attack was more of a “riot” than an insurrection.
That was met with skepticism from several of the judges.
“Why isn't it enough that a violent mob stormed the Capitol when Congress was performing an essential constitutional function?” Judge William W. Hood III said during arguments Dec. 6. “In some ways, that seems like an example of insurrection.”
The consequences of the insurrection at the Capitol
In the ruling issued Tuesday, The majority of the court rejected arguments that Trump was not responsible for the violent attack by his supporterswhich sought to stop 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 Marquez ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. Chief Justice Brian D. Boatright dissented, arguing that the constitutional issues were too complex to be resolved in a state hearing. Judges Maria E. Berkenkotter and Carlos Samour also dissented.
“Our government cannot deprive anyone of the right to hold public office without due process of law,” Samour wrote in his dissenting opinion. “Even if we are convinced that a candidate committed horrific acts in the past – I would venture to say that he participated in an insurrection – there must be procedural due process before we can declare that individual disqualified from holding public office.”
Colorado will hold its presidential primaries on March 5, on the well-known Super Tuesday, a key date on which 16 states will vote and which can define the race.
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