The unelected justices of the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the people of Colorado cannot vote for former President Donald Trump on the ballot for the 2024 presidential election.
The decision, passed by a narrow margin, was led by four justices whose ruling has sparked a fierce debate about legal standards and democratic principles.
According to CBS News, “lawsuits challenging Trump’s candidacy have been filed in more than 25 states ahead of the 2024 election.”
BREAKING: The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday disqualified Trump from the 2024 ballot.
The legal theories are based on Section 3 of the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment which states public officials who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the US may be… pic.twitter.com/6UrRglYrPT
— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) December 20, 2023
The case in Colorado, instigated by a far-left organization, argued that Mr. Trump should be barred from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment over allegations of insurrection. Despite a lower court’s ruling that noted while Trump engaged in alleged “insurrection” by inciting the Capitol event, the Amendment does not apply to presidential candidates specifically; the Supreme Court’s majority saw things differently.
Democrat judge Sarah Wallace, who oversaw the lawsuit to remove former President Donald Trump from the 2024 election ballot, rejected the challenge last month.
In her ruling, Wallace wrote:
“While the Court agrees that there are persuasive arguments on both sides, the Court holds that the absence of the President from the list of positions to which the Amendment applies combined with the fact that Section Three specifies that the disqualifying oath is one to “support” the Constitution whereas the Presidential oath is to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution, it appears to the Court that for whatever reason the drafters of Section Three did not intend to include a person who had only taken the Presidential Oath.”
Wallace wrote in her conclusion:
Pursuant to the above, the Court ORDERS the Secretary of State to place Donald J. Trump on the presidential primary ballot when it certifies the ballot on January 5, 2024.
Then, earlier this month, the legal challenge to block Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot in Colorado, citing the 14th Amendment, headed to the state’s supreme court.
It should be noted that Trump has not been charged with engaging in insurrection or rebellion against the United States. Trump told his supporters to be PEACEFUL!
On Tuesday, four justices of the Colorado Supreme Court cast their votes in favor of excluding former President Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 presidential ballot.
According to the ruling, “In this appeal from a district court proceeding under the Colorado Election Code, the supreme court considers whether former President Donald J. Trump may appear on the Colorado Republican presidential primary ballot in 2024. A majority of the court holds that President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. 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. The court stays its ruling until January 4, 2024, subject to any further appellate proceedings.”
All seven current justices on the Colorado Supreme Court were appointed by Democratic governors. This has been the case since 2021.
The current justices and their appointing governors are:
Justice Carlos Armando Samour Jr. (appointed by Bill Ritter in 2010)
Justice Monica M. Márquez (appointed by Governor Bill Ritter, Jr in 2010)
Chief Justice Brian Boatright (appointed by John Hickenlooper in 2011)
Justice William W. Hood, III (appointed by Governor John Hickenlooper in 2014)
Justice Richard L. Gabriel (appointed by Governor John Hickenlooper in 2015)
Justice Melissa Hart (appointed by Governor John Hickenlooper in 2017)
Justice Maria E. Berkenkotter (appointed by Jared Polis in 2021)
Here are the four justices who voted to disqualify Trump from holding the office of President under Section Three.
Justice Monica M. Márquez (appointed by Governor Bill Ritter, Jr in 2010)
Justice Melissa Hart (appointed by Governor John Hickenlooper in 2017)
Justice William W. Hood, III (appointed by Governor John Hickenlooper in 2014)
Justice Richard L. Gabriel (appointed by Governor John Hickenlooper in 2015)
The three justices of the Colorado Supreme Court who opposed the majority decision to exclude Donald Trump from the state’s primary ballot presented a range of reasons for their dissent.
CNN reported:
Justice Carlos Samour said that he agreed with the majority’s finding that the Constitution “bars from public office anyone who, having previously taken an oath as an officer of the United States to support the federal Constitution, engages in insurrection.”
But he raised due process concerns and took issue with the majority’s decision to use state law “as an engine to provide the necessary thrust to effectuate” the so-called federal insurrectionist ban.
“My colleagues in the majority concede that there is currently no legislation enacted by Congress to enforce Section Three. This is of no moment to them, however, because they conclude that Section Three is self-executing, and that the states are free to apply their own procedures (including compressed ones in an election code) to enforce it. That is hard for me to swallow,” he wrote, referring to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
Chief Justice Brian Boatright wrote in his dissent that he believes Colorado election law “was not enacted to decide whether a candidate engaged in insurrection,” and said he would have dismissed the challenge to Trump’s eligibility.
“In the absence of an insurrection-related conviction, I would hold that a request to disqualify a candidate under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment is not a proper cause of action under Colorado’s election code,” he wrote.
Justice Maria E. Berkenkotter wrote in her dissent that she didn’t think Colorado state courts had the authority to decide whether a presidential candidate can be disqualified under the “insurrectionist ban.”
She said the majority “construes the court’s authority too broadly,” and that the lower court erred when it decided not to grant Trump’s request to toss the case out.
House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote, “Today’s ruling attempting to disqualify President Trump from the Colorado ballot is nothing but 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. We trust the U.S. Supreme Court will set aside this reckless decision and let the American people decide the next President of the United States.”
Congressman Troy Nehls wrote, “The Colorado Supreme Court has removed President Trump from the ballot under the 14th Amendment. These justices are a disgrace to our country. The court’s ruling is just more election interference. America stands with President Trump.”
Kari Lake wrote, “In an unprecedented decision, partisan judges on the CO SCOTUS just REMOVED the leading presidential candidate from the ballot. Overturning over a century of judicial precedent. This is HISTORIC election interference. SCOTUS MUST overrule.”
Lake added, “The radical left think they can dictate the rights & freedoms that we are allowed to have. They don’t think we should be allowed to pick our leaders. That’s why you’re seeing this legal tyranny. They want to rule over hardworking, patriotic Americans like the tinpot dictators they are. We can’t let them win. I’m running for Senate because I refuse to let my two beautiful children grow up in a Third World country. We need to rally around our rule of law. We need to send President Trump back to the White House, where he can stomp out this corruption once & for all.”
The Trump campaign has weighed in on the Supreme Court’s outrageous ruling. Spokesman Steven Cheung unleashed a fiery response blasting the Court, Biden, and the radical left Soros group who brought the suit.
“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.
We have full confidence that the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly rule in our favor and finally put an end to these un-American lawsuits.”
You can read the full ruling below:
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