A Colorado judge will hear closing arguments on Wednesday in a case that could result in former President Donald Trump being barred from the state’s 2024 presidential election ballot.
Colorado District Court Judge Sarah B. Wallace is scheduled to hear closing arguments after a weeklong trial that included testimonies from legal experts, U.S. lawmakers, and Republican political operatives, according to Reuters.
This case was filed by six voters represented by Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and is based on Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Section 3 prevents any person who has taken an oath to the Constitution and “engaged in insurrection” from running for another elected office.
Arguments made by the plaintiffs will focus on the events before and during the January 6, 2021, events at the U.S. Capitol and whether the former president had a role in what happened.
A proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law filing from the plaintiffs laid out the arguments that Trump encouraged and “engaged in” an “insurrection.”
“By spearheading the fraudulent ‘fake elector’ scheme, and by perpetuating the lie that Vice President [Mike] Pence had authority to overturn the results of the election, Trump intentionally and fraudulently coordinated his supporters around a common unlawful purpose to disrupt the constitutionally mandated counting of the real presidential electoral votes,” the plaintiff’s attorneys stated in the filing, according to Colorado Newsline.
“Trump took voluntary acts with the intent to further the insurrection’s common unlawful purpose of obstructing the certification of the electoral count.”
On the other hand, Trump’s attorneys filed a 177-page proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law in which they presented their arguments as to why Trump did not violate the amendment.
The filing contends that there is “little dispute that January 6, 2021, witnessed violence at the Capitol,” but the two sides “sharply [disagree] as to the nature and extent of that violence, and most importantly, whether President Trump caused that violence.”
“Americans across the political spectrum have reacted to President Trump’s political communications in passionate and often polarizing ways,” it read, per Colorado Newsline.
“But the primary issue before the Court is narrowly focused on whether President Trump’s public speech disqualifies him under Section Three of the [Fourteenth] Amendment.”
Derek Muller, a Notre Dame law professor, told the Associated Press that the case will likely come down to the application of the amendment, as reported by Fox 31 KDVR.
“There’s this very public fight, in all these colloquial terms, about whether it’s an insurrection, but it really comes down to brass tacks defining what this constitutional term means,” he said, per Fox 31.
The Republican primary in Colorado is scheduled for March 5, but the Secretary of State must finalize a list of candidates by the January 5 deadline.
Wallace previously said that she expects the case to be brought to the Colorado Supreme Court and that it could eventually be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, which would be the first time the high court has ruled on this legislation, as reported by The Dallas Express.