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

  • Furbag@lemmy.world
    2662·
    10 months ago

    In other news, Colorado confirmed most patriotic state in the union.

    If a few more states follow suit, even if they are “safe blue” states, the GOP will have no choice but to drop Trump and pick up the next best candidate. Winning local elections is way more important for Republican-aligned agendas to continue forward, but if people won’t turn out because Trump is off the ballot, it’ll be a blue wave of lower offices flipping. They’ll need to work fast to push the “Trump Bad, X Good” where X is whatever conservative sock puppet they prop up to take his place in hopes of saving their chances at maintaining a multi-state hegemony on state congressional seats.

      • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
        25·
        10 months ago

        Women don’t want her because she’s anti-woman and maga don’t want her because they’re anti-woman. It’s kind of funny.

        • TheOriginalGregToo@lemmy.world
          122·
          10 months ago

          Weird, and here I thought it had nothing to do with her gender but rather her war mongering. Color me surprised. Happy to have someone insightful like you to tell me how I REALLY feel.

    • TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.idEnglish
      27·
      10 months ago

      It will go to the SCOTUS first and if they overturn the decision then it’s back to square one. Even if they don’t overturn the decision, it also still depends on enough swing states also barring Trump from running, since Colorado is a blue state that he was never going to win anyway.

      What we really want are states like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania to bar him from running. Then he really would be fucked.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
            4·
            10 months ago

            Yeah. They could. Honestly though they shouldn’t even be taking the case. The Constitution is pretty clear that the states are in charge of elections.

            • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
              1·
              10 months ago

              The Voting Rights Act is ironically what Trump relies on here. It’s possible the court has weakened the law by so much that each state gets to decide.

              • Maggoty@lemmy.world
                1·
                10 months ago

                I’m not seeing anything in the VRA about candidates. Just about districting and voting. Can you point me to that?

                • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
                  1·
                  10 months ago

                  It’s not candidates specifically but to what degree the federal government can dictate a state government’s elections. States have full jurisdiction over running elections, and the VRA lets the federal government keep them in check. I guess it’s more the idea of law than the letter, but the idea remains very important in our legal framework.

          • TimLovesTech (AuDHD)(he/him)@badatbeing.socialEnglish
            3·
            10 months ago

            I believe it’s an all or nothing type ruling, the 14th either applies or it doesn’t. As the Supreme Court only interprets the constitution/law they cannot change the fact he was found to be part of an insurrection against the United States.

        • TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.idEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          This is correct. Their ruling will be legally binding for all states since federal law supercedes state law as a basic constitutional matter.

      • lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee
        8·
        10 months ago

        Colorado can set the precedence that other states can do it. It will also prevent some republicans from voting at all in Colorado which will turn local offices in that state bluer. Also, Trump has come right out and said he sees himself as a dictator and Clarence Thomas sees himself as a rich man. Those 2 things are mutually exclusive because a dictator doesn’t need a supreme court so they might actually make the right decision on that.

        • meyotch@slrpnk.net
          4·
          10 months ago

          We just had a school board election here in CO hinge on a handful of votes. The better-by-far candidate won, but barely. This is the most significant likely impact of these rulings here and hopefully elsewhere. I do wish people could stop over-emphasizing the presidency at the expense of the very crucial state and local offices.

        • TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.idEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          I’m not optimistic at all. I’m simply stating the legal reality. If you read any optimism into my statement, that’s on you.

      • FanciestPants@lemmy.world
        14·
        10 months ago

        From what I’ve heard, DeSantis is in a pretty safe second spot. The logic as i understand it is that he’s MAGA enough to be a strong second pick for those that really want Trump but might have to vote for someone else, while Haley is mostly pulling together the “republican, but not Trump” coalition, which is pretty far short of 50% of republican primary voters.

      • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
        141·
        10 months ago

        Who knows. Primaries have upsets. Clinton was the frontrunner going into 2008. Jeb Bush was Republicans’ presumptive nominee before the 2016 primaries started.

    • Lon3star@lemmy.world
      5·
      10 months ago

      They won’t care if it is states he would lose regardless. Get swing states to do this and then you got a stew going

    • EatATaco@lemm.eeEnglish
      4·
      10 months ago

      No chance trump doesn’t win a primary election for Republicans, unless they block him from it.