TOP COLORADO COURT BLOCKS TRUMP FROM APPEARING ON STATE BALLOT
▶ Former president declared ineligible for White House under US constitution’s insurrection clause
Colorado’s Supreme Court has barred Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s primary ballot and declared him ineligible to run for president because of his actions on January 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the US Capitol.
Tuesday’s ruling by the state’s highest court will almost certainly be appealed to the US Supreme Court, where a heavily pro-Trump panel may be sympathetic to the former president’s case.
But the ruling is another headache for the Republican Party frontrunner, who is also facing criminal charges at the federal and state levels.
The court’s ruling blocks Mr Trump from participating in Colorado’s primary in March. He has until January 4 to appeal.
He was blocked under Section 3 of a Civil War-era clause of the 14th amendment of the US constitution, which bars from office anyone who swore an oath to “support” the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion”.
During the January 6 insurrection, supporters of Mr Trump stormed the Capitol after Mr Trump told a rally to “fight like hell”. One protester was shot dead and several police officers have died by suicide since the incident took place.
The constitution’s insurrection clause has been used only a handful of times since the late 19th century.
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed nationally to disqualify Mr Trump under Section 3 after he refused to concede defeat in the 2020 election and then worked to overturn the results.
The ruling, which had a 4-3 majority in the Colorado court, said judges did “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 favour and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach,” they wrote, adding that they were in “uncharted territory”.
Chief Justice Brian Boatright said in a dissenting opinion the ruling was premature because Mr Trump had not been criminally convicted and more time was needed to consider the complexities of the case.
The former president lost Colorado by 13 percentage points in 2020 and does not need the state to win next year’s presidential election.
But the danger for Mr Trump is that more courts and election officials will follow Colorado’s lead and exclude him from must-win states.
The ruling comes as Mr Trump maintains a dominant lead in the Republican Party primary, setting the stage for a 2020 rematch against President Joe Biden.
A poll published last week by Bloomberg News and Morning Consult showed that Mr Trump led Mr Biden by five percentage
points among registered voters in a head-to-head match up across seven swing states.
“Democrat Party leaders are in a state of paranoia over the growing, dominant lead President Trump has amassed in the polls,” the Trump 2024 campaign 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.”
On his Truth Social media platform, Mr Trump posted a string of messages saying the Colorado ruling was “election interference”.
“A sad day in America,” he wrote in one message yesterday.
Mr Trump, who is facing four criminal indictments, has used legal actions against him to rally political support, framing the charges as a plot by the political establishment to keep him out of power.
The Colorado ruling, coming just one month before the Iowa caucuses, could further galvanise his supporters.
House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, criticised the decision on social media as “nothing but a thinly veiled partisan attack” and urged the US Supreme Court to set aside the “reckless ruling”.
Mr Trump posted a string of messages on social media saying the Colorado ruling was ‘election interference’