WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Former President Donald Trump is disqualified from serving as U.S. president and cannot appear on the primary ballot in Colorado because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters, the state's top court ruled Tuesday.
The historic 4-3 ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court, likely to be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court, makes Trump the first presidential candidate deemed ineligible for the White House under a rarely used constitutional provision that bars officials who have engaged in "insurrection or rebellion" from holding office.
The ruling applies only to Colorado's March 5 Republican primary but it could affect Trump's status in the state for the Nov. 5 general election. Nonpartisan U.S. election forecasters view Colorado as safely Democratic, meaning that President Joe Biden will likely carry the state regardless of Trump's fate there.
Trump vowed to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Colorado court said it would delay the effect of its decision until at least Jan. 4, 2024, to allow for an appeal.
Trump’s name automatically remains on the ballot until the justices in Washington resolve the appeal.
But it also underscored the extraordinary messiness of a presidential campaign litigated as much in the courtroom as on the campaign trail — with cases sprawling across multiple jurisdictions, a cast of characters rivaling a Russian novel and a former president who has perfected the art of working the legal system to his advantage over decades of close brushes with the law. ...
Like clockwork on Tuesday night, Trump’s pollster predicted that the Colorado court had played into Trump’s hand.
“The fact that it was a bunch of unelected, left-wing judges, and a lawsuit that was brought by a [George] Soros-funded organization, it’s crazy,” Jim McLaughlin, Trump’s pollster, told POLITICO. “The American people have a great sense of fairness, and these are the people that run around saying that Trump’s a threat to Democracy, and they’re getting him thrown off the ballot. They are not giving the American people the right to decide. This, I think, is going to backfire.”
AP:
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed nationally to disqualify Trump under Section 3, which was designed to keep former Confederates from returning to government after the Civil War. It bars from office anyone who swore an oath to “support” the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against it, and has been used only a handful of times since the decade after the Civil War.
“I think it may embolden other state courts or secretaries to act now that the bandage has been ripped off,” Derek Muller, a Notre Dame law professor who has closely followed the Section 3 cases, said after Tuesday’s ruling. “This is a major threat to Trump’s candidacy.”
The Colorado case is the first where the plaintiffs succeeded.
Richard Friedman, a University of Michigan law professor, said the decision should not be surprising.
“He took an oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States. And then he did what he could to subvert the lawful processes for electing our president,” Friedman said. “The nation must accept the decision and move on.”
CNN:
In many ways, the landmark ruling holds Trump accountable for trying to overturn the 2020 election and provides a political punishment for his anti-democratic behavior. The ruling is also a massive vindication for the liberal groups and constitutional scholars of all stripes who championed such 14th Amendment lawsuits despite their long odds.
But Trump has mastered the art of converting legal setbacks into polling bounces. He’s already in a stronger position today to beat President Joe Biden than he was one year ago, before he was criminally indicted in four jurisdictions. And he and his GOP allies kicked into high gear Tuesday night, playing the victim card and railing against the ruling.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (which helped bring the suit):
“My fellow plaintiffs and I brought this case to continue to protect the right to free and fair elections enshrined in our Constitution and to ensure Colorado Republican primary voters are only voting for eligible candidates. Today’s win does just that,” said petitioner and former Republican majority leader of the Colorado House and Senate Norma Anderson. “Long before this lawsuit was filed, I had already read Section 3 of the 14th Amendment and concluded that it applied to Donald Trump, given his actions leading up to and on January 6th. I am proud to be a petitioner, and gratified that the Colorado Supreme Court arrived at the same conclusion we all did.”
“The court’s decision today affirms what our clients alleged in this lawsuit: that Donald Trump is an insurrectionist who disqualified himself from office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment based on his role in the January 6th attack on the Capitol, and that Secretary Griswold must keep him off of Colorado’s primary ballot. It is not only historic and justified, but is necessary to protect the future of democracy in our country,” said CREW President Noah Bookbinder. “Our Constitution clearly states that those who violate their oath by attacking our democracy are barred from serving in government. It has been an honor to represent the petitioners, and we look forward to ensuring that this vitally important ruling stands.”
Zoom in: Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a member of Senate GOP leadership, introduced legislation on Tuesday aimed at punishing states that make such rulings.
The three-page bill would amend the Help America Vote Act to withhold federal election administration funds to states "misusing the Fourteenth Amendment for political purposes."
It would also clarify that the Supreme Court has "sole jurisdiction" to adjudicate such 14th Amendment cases.
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