Former President Donald Trump is ineligible to appear on Colorado’s primary ballot next year based on constitutional grounds, the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
The judges wrote that Trump can’t appear on the ballot because of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
“A majority of the court holds that President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution,” the ruling said. “Because he is disqualified, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Colorado Secretary of State to list him as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot.”
What does Section 3 of the 14th Amendment say?
Section 3 of the Civil War-era 14th Amendment says: “No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States … who, having previously taken an oath … as an officer of the United States, 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.”
The provision was mainly used between its ratification in the aftermath of the Civil War and the 1872 enactment of the Amnesty Act, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.
How did the case come about?
In early September, several law firms and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a lawsuit on behalf of six voters in Colorado requesting that Trump be barred from the state’s 2024 election ballots because of his role in the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. CREW noted that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has “not been tested often in the last 150 years, due to lack of insurrections.”
CREW said, however, that it represented New Mexico residents last year who sued to remove Cowboys for Trump co-founder Couy Griffin from his elected position as Otero County commissioner, which was “the only successful case to be brought under Section 3 since 1869.”
Was Trump charged with insurrection?
The former president has not been charged explicitly with “insurrection” or “rebellion” in any of his criminal cases, including the D.C. election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith. Smith’s office charged Trump with conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. The case is scheduled to go to trial in early March.
The CRS report says, “Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment does not expressly require a criminal conviction, and historically, one was not necessary.”
What happened before the state Supreme Court’s ruling?
The Colorado Supreme Court decision reversed a lower court’s ruling that said Trump had engaged in insurrection by inciting a riot on Jan. 6, 2021, but that presidents are not subject to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment because they are not an “officer of the United States.”
There’s been some debate over whether the president is not covered by Section 3 because it doesn’t explicitly mention the president. But the Congressional Research Service says “it may be more likely that the office of the President is included as an office under the United States” and it says that the history of Section 3’s drafting suggests that the president is covered.
What happens next?
Colorado’s Supreme Court put its decision on hold until Jan. 4 to allow for further appeals. It also said that if the matter is pursued before the U.S. Supreme Court before that date, the pause will remain in effect during that time and Colorado will be required to include Trump’s name on the primary ballot pending action by the Supreme Court.
Are there challenges in other states?
The only successful challenge so far has been in Colorado but there have also been efforts made in New Hampshire, Arizona and Michigan.
In early December, a federal court dismissed the lawsuit in Arizona. In September, the secretary of state in New Hampshire said he wouldn’t block Trump from appearing on the state’s election ballots. Meanwhile, a group in Michigan has brought its challenge to prohibit Trump from appearing on the state’s ballot to the state Supreme Court and wants a decision no later than Christmas Day.
