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- By Madeline Halpert
- BBC News, New York
Image source, Getty Images
Colorado’s Supreme Court has removed Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot, citing an insurrection clause in the US Constitution.
In a decision that upends the White House race, the court ruled 4-3 that Mr Trump is not an eligible candidate.
It is the first time that Section 3 of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.
Several attempts to kick Mr Trump off the ballot in other states have failed.
Tuesday’s decision – which has been placed on hold pending appeal until next month – does not apply to states outside of Colorado.
The top court wrote in its ruling: “We do not reach these conclusions lightly. We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us.
“We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”
The decision reverses an earlier one from a Colorado judge, who ruled that the 14th Amendment’s insurrection ban did not apply to presidents because the section does not explicitly name them.
That same lower court judge also found that Mr Trump had participated in an insurrection on the day of the US Capitol riot in 2021. Supporters of the former president stormed Congress on that day while lawmakers were certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory.
The Colorado Supreme Court’s decision does not go into effect until at least 4 January 2024. That is the eve of the deadline for the state to print its presidential primary ballots.
In a statement, Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, called the ruling “completely flawed” and lambasted the justices, who were all appointed by Democratic governors.
“Democrat Party leaders are in a state of paranoia over the growing, dominant lead President Trump has amassed in the polls,” Mr Cheung said.
“They have lost faith in the failed Biden presidency and are now doing everything they can to stop the American voters from throwing them out of office next November.”
Mr Cheung added that Mr Trump’s legal team would “swiftly file an appeal” to the US Supreme Court.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a watchdog group that brought the case, welcomed the ruling.
“It is not only historic and justified, but is necessary to protect the future of democracy in our country,” the group’s president, Noah Bookbinder, said in a statement.
Similar lawsuits in New Hampshire, Minnesota and Michigan have failed.
The 14th Amendment was ratified after the American Civil War. Its Section 3 was intended to block secessionists from returning to previous government roles once southern states re-joined the Union.
It was used against Confederate president Jefferson Davis and his vice-president Alexander Stephens, both of whom had served in Congress. It has seldom been invoked since.
Mr Trump lost the state of Colorado by a wide margin in the last presidential election. But if courts in more competitive states followed suit on Tuesday’s ruling, Mr Trump’s White House bid could face serious problems.
During a one-week trial in Colorado last month, the former president’s lawyers argued he should not be disqualified because he did not bear responsibility for the US Capitol riot.
But in its Tuesday ruling, the Colorado Supreme Court majority disagreed.
They said Mr Trump’s messages before the riot were “a call to his supporters to fight and… his supporters responded to that call”.
Carlos Samour, one of three justices who dissented, argued the government could not “deprive someone of the right to hold public office without due process of law”.
“Even if we are convinced that a candidate committed horrible acts in the past – dare I say, engaged in insurrection – there must be procedural due process before we can declare that individual disqualified from holding public office,” he wrote.
Republican lawmakers also lambasted the decision, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who called it “a thinly veiled partisan attack”.
“Regardless of political affiliation, every citizen registered to vote should not be denied the right to support our former president and the individual who is the leader in every poll of the Republican primary,” he said.
Mr Trump is facing four criminal cases, including one federal and one state case in Georgia related to his election subversion efforts.
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