The Colorado Supreme Court has disqualified former President Donald Trump from the ballot in the state’s presidential election in 2024.
The court on Tuesday, December 19, 2023, declared Trump ineligible to run for the presidential race again over his role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.
The ruling makes Trump the first presidential candidate in U.S. history to be deemed ineligible for the White House under a rarely used provision of the U.S. Constitution that bars officials who have engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” from holding office.
The court concluded that the U.S. Constitution bars the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2024 from appearing on the ballot because of his role, instigating violence against the U.S. government.
The ruling applies only to the state’s March 5 Republican primary, but its conclusion would likely also affect Trump’s status 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.
A coalition of Colorado voters, supported by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, initiated a case asserting that Donald Trump should be ineligible for office due to allegations of incitement leading to the Capitol attack in a bid to obstruct the transition of presidential power to Biden following the 2020 election.
Trump’s campaign criticized the court’s decision as “flawed” and “undemocratic,” announcing plans to appeal. A campaign spokesperson declared, “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.”
Trump’s campaign has consistently denounced 14th Amendment challenges, framing them as attempts to undermine the choice of millions of voters. This court ruling stands as a triumph for advocacy groups and anti-Trump voters who have pursued various legal challenges under section 3 of the 14th Amendment, enacted post-Civil War.
The decision overturns a lower court’s ruling that characterized Trump’s actions as incitement to insurrection, asserting, however, that as president, he did not qualify as an “officer of the United States” subject to disqualification under the amendment.
Trump’s legal representative argued that the Capitol riot lacked the gravity to be classified as an insurrection, contending that Trump’s statements to supporters that day were protected by free speech rights. The lawyer asserted that courts lacked the authority to mandate Trump’s removal from the ballot.
Advocates aimed to use this case as a stepping stone for broader disqualification efforts, potentially bringing the matter before the U.S. Supreme Court, where a 6-3 conservative majority, including three Trump appointees, presides.