The Colorado Supreme Court is removing former President Donald Trump from the primary ballot, saying he is ineligible to be president.
In a stunning and unprecedented decision, the Colorado Supreme Court removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot, ruling that he isn’t an eligible presidential candidate because of the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban.”
“Even when the siege on the Capitol was fully underway, he continued to support it by repeatedly demanding that Vice President (Mike) Pence refuse to perform his constitutional duty and by calling Senators to persuade them to stop the counting of electoral votes.
“President Trump’s direct and express efforts, over several months, exhorting his supporters to march to the Capitol to prevent what he falsely characterized as an alleged fraud on the people of this country were indisputably overt and voluntary.”
Ratified after the Civil War, the 14th Amendment says officials who take an oath to support the Constitution are banned from future office if they “engaged in insurrection.” But the wording is vague, it doesn’t explicitly mention the presidency, and has only been applied twice since 1919.
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,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.
Chief Justice Brian Boatright, one of the three dissenters on the seven-member court, wrote 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.
LINKS
AP: Colorado Supreme Court bans Trump from the state’s ballot under Constitution’s insurrection clause | @negativenull@startrek.website
Washington Post: Donald Trump is barred from Colorado’s 2024 primary ballot, the state Supreme Court rules | @silence7@slrpnk.net
CNBC: Colorado Supreme Court disqualifies Trump from 2024 ballot, pauses ruling to allow appeal | @return2ozma
NBC News: Colorado Supreme Court kicks Donald Trump off the state's 2024 ballot for violating the U.S. Constitution. | 18-24-61-B-17-17-4
CNN: Colorado Supreme Court removes Trump from 2024 ballot | A Phlaming Phoenix
CNN:Colorado Supreme Court removes Trump from 2024 ballot based on 14th Amendment’s ‘insurrectionist ban’ | @Boddhisatva
New York Times: Trump Is Disqualified From the 2024 Ballot, Colorado Supreme Court Rules | @silence7@slrpnk.net
Surely this will be challenged, and I'm not optimistic about the federal Supreme Court maintaining the same decision, but, fuck, would that be nice.
SCOTUS could decline to take it up. Remember, they were not interested in entertaining Trump's election fraud claims.
They also have typically demurred to "states' rights." ~~It was a violation of Colorado's Constitution~~, so I agree that it's less than likely they'll rule in his favor on appeal.
Edit: it was ruled as violating the US Constitution. But I still stand by what I said.
Weird assumption that the fedsoc SCOTUS will have any consistency in their rulings other than what's best for rich people
Yeah, I can't believe so many people are still fooled by their 'originalism' story. The originalists have just the most radical interpretations of the law that have no relation to the wording it intent of those that wrote it. Biggest example of that is how they interpret the second amendment.
And also the continual hollowing out of the fourth. The founders would be shocked to see what police can legally do these days (and if they do something illegal, there's still no consequences, because the people in charge of enforcing the law are apparently the only ones where ignorance of the law is an excuse).
Well, I can tell you what's not best for rich people. So there's reasonable hope.
I think the Colorado Supreme Court is citing that Trump violated the US Constitution, namely the 14th Amendment.
Whoops, I misread. Got a little too excited.
also, the feds don't decide who goes on the ballots- that's a state matter. They run the elections. It'll probably come before SCOTUS only if trump actually wins the regular election.
similar to how, a state can send a congressperson to congress that's ineligible, but they get kicked out on day one.
If you honestly believe even two of the Tribunal of Six would actually do the right thing, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
is it the London or Brooklyn bridge? I had my eye on the London Bridge for the longest time.
But it's always falling down.
Isn’t thst the point of arches? Always falling and nowhere to go, so they’re strong and can hold up heavy…. Uh… stuff?
They only care about "states' rights" if it suits them. They're completely happy to trample on the state's right to regulate other things they don't like.
Still a states rights issue as states control their own elections.
They declined to hear about the Illinois AWB.
Some of the articles note that Trump wouldn't need Colorado to win (and didnt win in 2020) and while this sets a wonderful precedent, I'd wager that most would-be-Red-voting states simply wouldn't recognize this decision.
In that light, this seems a little bit of a hollow victory, but maybe I'm wrong and this is the precipice of something far better.
I suggested elsewhere in the thread that it opens the door to other challenges in other states and that his primary opponents are probably looking into the idea since it's the only chance they have. Maybe it wouldn't work in the redder states, but in purple states?
Fingers crossed. I'd love for this chapter of American history to end.
It won't end unfortunately, it'll only morph into something else. But who knows, maybe the fall of Trump coinciding with Boomers dying might ripple into a period of relative tranquility. I give it a 1% chance.
those are shounen anime numbers 🕶️
True, but this removes him from the primary. If enough other states do this, you could have Nikki Haley or someone else winning that state. Then again, Colorado's primary takes place on Super Tuesday (March 5th). By the time, Haley is announced the winner, it would likely be too late to stop Trump. (Assuming nothing else stops him first.)
It would be a perfect out for them, as long as they don't get Dictator B elected instead. Then they'd end up on the enemies list.
Current SCotUS is hella corrupt, but I don't see them denying that the individual States control their own elections.
Yeah, was gonna say that if they rule against that then there’s going to be a fuck ton of challenges to everything they’ve ruled using state’s rights as the ruling.
They'll have to be really careful if they take the case, because the wording of their decision is critical. They could inadvertently empower the Voting Rights Act.
The year 2000 is calling.
The U.S. Supreme Court only has until January 4th to respond.
The Jan. 4th deadline isn't that meaningful. The ballots don't even exist yet, so striking him from the ballots on January 4th isn't actually possible.
The more interesting deadline is not Jan. 4 nor Mar. 5 (the primary election date), but February 12, 2024 because this is when mail-in ballots will be sent. No changes at that point.
Colorado deadline to submit primary candidates for the ballots is January 5th - one day after the deadline.
Yes and that might be important but I think the court could be persuaded to permit a candidate to be added if a higher court ruled that it was constitutionally required. That's why I think Feb. 12 is the real goal line.
Ah I understand the logic now. The “practical” deadline is essentially when the ballots must be created and mailed. Got it.
Those ballots need to be created before they can be addressed/mailed. All that takes time, and thus the January 5th deadline. Once the process has started I don't think it's practical to scrap ballots and start over.
The real hard deadline is probably between the two, if a SCOTUS opinion dropped on February 11th, it's probably too late to correct, but if it came in January 6th, they'd probably make a good faith effort to correct it if necessary.
Yeah, in good faith I could see them doing it, but I think legally they could just say "to late".
It’s not impossible. This court is extremely right wing and pro-Republican, but some justices are also fanatically religious. And a lot of religious conservatives are souring on the “Trump as orange Jesus” thing, especially educated ones.
If they rule on it fairly quickly, the GOP could still field a religious candidate that shares the justices’ beliefs.
It would lead to a lot of terror attacks in the US, a much larger insurrection attempt, and ruin the Republican Party
The Supreme Court would never put justice above their own interests
Lol, oh wait yeah you're right. Had to read that last line twice...
Is there much at stake? Biden was very highly likely to win CO to begin with.
It sets the precedent for other states to strike him.
If he ends up not being the candidate in enough states to deny him 270 votes, he's done.
A win in Georgia would certainly rustle some jimmies.
Which states would actually bar him though? I thought the same thing, that he’d have lost CO anyway, and I’m just not seeing this happening in states where he’s likely to win or where it’d actually be competitive.
I’m not trying to be a pessimist or anything, despite it being my usual inclination, I’d genuinely like to know whether other states might actually do the right thing, where it counts.
States he specifically victimized in 2020 should absolutely be considering it:
Arizona
Georgia
Michigan
Nevada
New Mexico
Pennsylvania
Wisconsin
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_fake_electors_plot
Those are enough swing states to keep him from hitting 270.
I worry we'd instead see Republicans trying to remove Biden from the ballot because the House "impeaches" him.