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

  • TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    10 months ago

    Surely this will be challenged, and I’m not optimistic about the federal Supreme Court maintaining the same decision, but, fuck, would that be nice.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      SCOTUS could decline to take it up. Remember, they were not interested in entertaining Trump’s election fraud claims.

      • Telorand@reddthat.com
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        10 months ago

        They also have typically demurred to “states’ rights.” It was a violation of Colorado’s Constitution, so I agree that it’s less than likely they’ll rule in his favor on appeal.

        Edit: it was ruled as violating the US Constitution. But I still stand by what I said.

      • TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        10 months ago

        Some of the articles note that Trump wouldn’t need Colorado to win (and didnt win in 2020) and while this sets a wonderful precedent, I’d wager that most would-be-Red-voting states simply wouldn’t recognize this decision.

        In that light, this seems a little bit of a hollow victory, but maybe I’m wrong and this is the precipice of something far better.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          I suggested elsewhere in the thread that it opens the door to other challenges in other states and that his primary opponents are probably looking into the idea since it’s the only chance they have. Maybe it wouldn’t work in the redder states, but in purple states?

        • TechyDad@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          True, but this removes him from the primary. If enough other states do this, you could have Nikki Haley or someone else winning that state. Then again, Colorado’s primary takes place on Super Tuesday (March 5th). By the time, Haley is announced the winner, it would likely be too late to stop Trump. (Assuming nothing else stops him first.)

        • djsoren19@yiffit.net
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          10 months ago

          Sure, but those red states aren’t going to make a difference no matter what, they’re stocked with crazies. Where this is going to make an impact is purple states that might have enough liberal justices to support the ruling, but also have a sizeable enough population of MAGAts that Trump could win the state. Cutting those off from him should be enough to make the GOP drop him.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        It would be a perfect out for them, as long as they don’t get Dictator B elected instead. Then they’d end up on the enemies list.

    • Jaysyn@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      Current SCotUS is hella corrupt, but I don’t see them denying that the individual States control their own elections.

      • xantoxis@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        The Jan. 4th deadline isn’t that meaningful. The ballots don’t even exist yet, so striking him from the ballots on January 4th isn’t actually possible.

        The more interesting deadline is not Jan. 4 nor Mar. 5 (the primary election date), but February 12, 2024 because this is when mail-in ballots will be sent. No changes at that point.

        • Chef@sh.itjust.works
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          10 months ago

          Colorado deadline to submit primary candidates for the ballots is January 5th - one day after the deadline.

          • xantoxis@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Yes and that might be important but I think the court could be persuaded to permit a candidate to be added if a higher court ruled that it was constitutionally required. That’s why I think Feb. 12 is the real goal line.

            • Chef@sh.itjust.works
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              10 months ago

              Ah I understand the logic now. The “practical” deadline is essentially when the ballots must be created and mailed. Got it.

              • TimLovesTech (AuDHD)(he/him)@badatbeing.social
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                10 months ago

                Those ballots need to be created before they can be addressed/mailed. All that takes time, and thus the January 5th deadline. Once the process has started I don’t think it’s practical to scrap ballots and start over.

                • nfh@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  The real hard deadline is probably between the two, if a SCOTUS opinion dropped on February 11th, it’s probably too late to correct, but if it came in January 6th, they’d probably make a good faith effort to correct it if necessary.

    • Nobody@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      It’s not impossible. This court is extremely right wing and pro-Republican, but some justices are also fanatically religious. And a lot of religious conservatives are souring on the “Trump as orange Jesus” thing, especially educated ones.

      If they rule on it fairly quickly, the GOP could still field a religious candidate that shares the justices’ beliefs.

    • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      It would lead to a lot of terror attacks in the US, a much larger insurrection attempt, and ruin the Republican Party

      The Supreme Court would never put justice above their own interests

    • doctorcrimson
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      10 months ago

      Is there much at stake? Biden was very highly likely to win CO to begin with.

      • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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        10 months ago

        It sets the precedent for other states to strike him.

        If he ends up not being the candidate in enough states to deny him 270 votes, he’s done.

        • root_beer@midwest.social
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          10 months ago

          Which states would actually bar him though? I thought the same thing, that he’d have lost CO anyway, and I’m just not seeing this happening in states where he’s likely to win or where it’d actually be competitive.

          I’m not trying to be a pessimist or anything, despite it being my usual inclination, I’d genuinely like to know whether other states might actually do the right thing, where it counts.

      • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        In theory, no. SCOTUS does not have jurisdiction over state election process (unless they give it to themselves, because who will stop them?).

        But they have jurisdiction to interpret the federal constitution. Since this ruling is based on the federal constitution, SCOTUS may have jurisdiction because of that.

    • cyd@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      If Haley is next up, I think Biden will have big problems winning. But there’s little chance of the SC upholding this decision.