Colorado Supreme Court Rules Trump Disqualified From The 2024 Ballot

Here are the four enemies of democracy on the Colorado Supreme Court that just voted to remove Donald Trump from the ballot.

Monica M. Márquez
Melissa Hart
William W. Hood, III
Richard L. Gabriel

That first three were appointed by former Gov. and now Senator John Hickenlooper. pic.twitter.com/xpIy4F5yhg

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 19, 2023

In a historic decision Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court barred Donald Trump from running in the state's presidential primary after determining that he had engaged in insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

The 4-3 ruling marked the first time a court has kept a presidential candidate off the ballot under an 1868 provision of the Constitution that prevents insurrectionists from holding office. The ruling comes as courts consider similar cases in other states.

If other states reach the same conclusion, Trump would have a difficult — if not impossible — time securing the Republican nomination and winning in November.

The decision is certain to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it will be up to the justices to decide whether to take the case. Scholars have said only the nation's high court can settle the issue of whether the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol constituted an insurrection and whether Trump is banned from running.

"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," the decision reads. "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."

Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump's campaign, blamed the decision on the "all-Democrat appointed" court, swearing to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. The seven-member bench of Colorado's Supreme Court was entirely appointed by Democratic governors; six later faced voters and won retention elections, while the seventh will do so next year.

"The Colorado Supreme Court issued a completely flawed decision tonight and we will swiftly file an appeal to the United States Supreme Court and a concurrent request for a stay of this deeply undemocratic decision," Cheung said. "We have full confidence that the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly rule in our favor and finally put an end to these unAmerican lawsuits."

Colorado Supreme Court also explicitly rejects that the First Amendment applies to Trump's political speech, continuing the trend of courts/prosecutors/politicians drastically eroding basic First Amendment protections in their never-ending crusade to extra-legally punish Trump pic.twitter.com/r3xta9liwR

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) December 20, 2023

One of the dissenting justices in the Colorado case says the majority ruling "flies in the face" of due process, as it validates the makeshift adjudication of an unprecedented federal constitutional issue as though it were just a "run-of-the-mill state Election Code claim" pic.twitter.com/dNoUnbv18I

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) December 20, 2023