The Colorado supreme court on Tuesday ruled that former president Donald Trump is ineligible to appear on the state’s ballot in the 2024 presidential election.
In a 4–3 ruling, the court held that Trump’s presence on the ballot “would be a wrongful act under the Election Code,” arguing that the former president is disqualified from holding the presidency under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads:
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.
The decision, which will be stayed until January 4 pending an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, comes after Colorado district judge Sarah Wallace dismissed the 14th Amendment challenge, concluding that the clause “did not intend to include the President as ‘an officer of the United States’ . . . [or] a person who had only taken the Presidential oath.”
The Trump campaign has announced it will file an appeal, with spokesman Steven Cheung saying the former president and his staff “have full confidence that the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly rule in our favor and finally put an end to these unAmerican lawsuits.”
The Minnesota supreme court dismissed a case in November regarding Trump’s presence in the state’s GOP primary election, holding that there “is no state statute that prohibits a major political party from placing on the presidential nomination ballot, or sending delegates to the national convention supporting, a candidate who is ineligible for office.” However, the court’s ruling noted that the body would not prohibit a challenge to Trump’s eligibility to appear on the state’s general-election ballot.