December 19, 2023
Former President Trump will not appear on the Republican primary ballot in the state of Colorado. That’s because the Colorado Supreme Court just ruled moments ago that the former President engaged in insurrection and therefore violated section three of the 14th Amendment and is disqualified. Now this is not the final word and I’ll get to that in a second but first…
I told you in this video a group of Republican electors filed a lawsuit a few months ago saying Trump engaged in insurrection on January 6th after swearing an oath as president to support the US constitution. And by doing so – he violated the 14th Amendment section three which then makes him ineligible to ever hold office again. The 14th Amendment by the way, was passed in 1868 after the civil war to prevent confederate leaders from ever holding federal office.
A Colorado district court judge said yes she believed Trump was engaged in insurrection, but in her ruling – she said the 14th Amendment didn’t specifically apply to Presidents and it was instead a function of Congress to disqualify him. Well today, the Colorado Supreme Court in a 4-3 ruling disagreed saying listing Trump as a primary candidate would be a wrongful act under the election code in Colorado and the lower court judge was wrong to exclude presidents from the 14th Amendment. The court said there was “clear and convincing evidence that president Trump engaged in insurrection as those terms are used in section three.” The Colorado supreme court also said Congress does not need to pass legislation for section three of the 14th Amendment to be applied. Electors themselves in each state can have the power to disqualify a candidate by going through the proper legal channels.
Now – the former President’s team has already said they will appeal this ruling. Other states are tackling this very same 14th Amendment issue so far no other states have disqualified Trump. So it’s very possible the US Supreme Court will hear this case on an emergency basis. The Colorado Supreme Court has put a pause on their ruling until January 4 pending appeals. But the Colorado Secretary of State says all these issues need to be resolved – including by the Supreme Court by January 5th because she must get the ballots certified and printed by that date to have them available for Colorado’s March 5th Presidential primary election.
Read the Colorado Supreme Court ruling here.
