The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that Donald Trump is disqualified from appearing on that state’s ballot because of the Constitution’s Insurrection Clause, Article 14, Section 3:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, 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. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Encouraging the January 6 riots and trying to get the election overturned was construed as “insurrection.” Therefore, the court ruled, Trump is ineligible to appear on Colorado’s ballot.
Though this applies only to Colorado, the ruling was stayed pending review by the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court agrees, that could knock him off of all ballots.
The post-Civil War amendment was added to prevent veterans of the Confederacy from holding public office. Back then, it was obvious if someone fought for the Confederacy or not. Today the definition of “insurrection” may be murkier.
A lower court had ruled that while Trump did commit insurrection, the Amendment didn’t apply to the presidency. The Colorado Supremes upheld that first point, but overturned the second.
This may be the only way of stopping Trump from winning the Republican nomination. My impression is that Democrats want Trump to be the candidate, seeing him as one of the few people Biden could defeat. Establishment Republicans would much rather have Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis. So we’ll have different hopes for how this will turn out, with (some) Democrats being pro-Trump and (some) Republicans being anti-Trump.
I do find it odd that many activists who see Trump as such a threat to Democracy are themselves working to prevent the People from voting for the person they want.
How do you think this will play out?
Photo: Colorado Supreme Court, via PICRYL, Public Domain
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