The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday, December 19, 2023, that former United States (US) President, Donald Trump, is not eligible to run for the 2024 presidential elections because of his actions surrounding the 2021 attack on the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
The Supreme Court ruled that former President Donald Trump was disqualified from holding the presidency under the Constitution’s insurrection clause. It ordered the secretary of state to exclude his name from the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot.
The divided Colorado Supreme Court rendered a historic decision, ruling that Trump is ineligible to hold public office under the Civil War-era provision. This is the first time a court has determined that Trump’s actions surrounding the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, disqualify him from holding office again. There is no court that has ever decided that a presidential candidate is ineligible under the 14th Amendment’s Section 3.
The court stated that Secretary of State Jena Griswold would not list Trump’s name on the 2024 presidential primary ballot, nor would she count any write-in votes cast for him.
However, the court put its decision on hold until January 4, 2024, 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.
In a statement, Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign, bashed the ruling and signalled that an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was forthcoming.
“Unsurprisingly, the all-Democrat-appointed Colorado Supreme Court has ruled against President Trump, supporting a Soros-funded, left-wing group’s scheme to interfere in an election on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden by removing President Trump’s name from the ballot and eliminating the rights of Colorado voters to vote for the candidate of their choice,” Cheung said in a statement.
Cheung added that they have full confidence that the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly rule in their favour and finally put an end to the un-American lawsuits.
On January 6, 2021, two months after the defeat of Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, a mob of his supporters attacked the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The mob sought to keep Trump in power by preventing a joint session of Congress from counting the Electoral College votes to formalise the victory of President-elect Joe Biden.
According to the House Select Committee that investigated the incident, the attack was the culmination of a seven-part plan by Trump to overturn the election.
