Former President Donald Trump, the runaway leader to be the Republican nominee in 2024, has been disqualified by the Colorado Supreme Court from appearing on the state’s ballots for the presidential election.
In a 4-3 ruling, the highest state court in Colorado ruled that Trump engaged in insurrection “by clear and convincing evidence” as defined in the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, reported Fox News. Trump is, therefore, disqualified from holding the office of president, the court found.
The ruling headnote said that the court’s decision is stayed until January 4, 2024, to allow for appeals.
Lawsuits to disqualify Trump based on the Fourteenth Amendment have been filed in 14 states including Texas, but the Colorado case was the first one to go to trial.
The seven judges on the high court — who were all appointed by Democrat governors — overturned the ruling of a district court judge who found that Trump had incited an insurrection on January 6, 2021, but concluded that the section in the Fourteenth Amendment dealing with insurrection did not apply to the president.
The Fourteenth Amendment states:
“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
As some have pointed out, the Fourteenth Amendment was part of the “Reconstruction Amendments” that were meant to prevent former Confederate military and political leaders who had engaged in bloody rebellion during the Civil War from holding high federal or state offices. It was not intended to apply to speech, the argument goes.
Trump posted his reaction on his campaign website, vowing to “appeal this decision immediately.”
The former president added, “We will take this fight all the way to the United States Supreme Court. I hope to God that Americans everywhere are waking up to what’s happening to our country.
“A ruling party is attempting to amass total control over America by rigging the election against its leading opponent who happens to be a political outsider committed to defending the needs and interests of hardworking Americans. This is how dictatorships are born.”