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 | @[email protected]

Washington Post: Donald Trump is barred from Colorado’s 2024 primary ballot, the state Supreme Court rules | @[email protected]

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 | @[email protected]

  • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    In a stunning and unprecedented decision

    Unprecedented?? Have these people heard of the civil war?

    • Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Even then we didn’t have to disqualify their “President” from the election because for one he never ran, and for two, the confeds technically never objected to the election results, they just split off and tried to traitorously start their own nation.

      The difference is basically

      Confeds: “We acknowledge Lincoln was elected, and we wanna keep owning people, we’re outta here”

      Maga: “We actually won the election, Biden stole it, give me what I want, blah, blah.”

      • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I thought in the afternath of the war they prevented a bunch of people from taking office with the 14th amendment?

        • whofearsthenight@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          They did. A few years later, a carve out was made that allowed basically everyone (except Robert E Lee and Jefferson Davis) to hold office. Those two would remain the only ones barred in this manner until the 70’s when that restriction was posthumously (obviously) lifted. There is a great podcast ep that just came out from What Roman Mars Can Learn about Con Law that talks about this very thing.

        • Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Yes, that did happen, thought it’s more complicated than that as the other commenter pointed out.

          Their “President” Never tried to actually run for office though so he didn’t have to be removed from any ballots, though the emphasis of my comment was more on the fact that the Confederates never said the election was rigged.

      • Zink@programming.dev
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        9 months ago

        Jeez, when it’s the slavers that seem like the ones with integrity and respect, it really puts into perspective just how far the right has fallen.

    • dhork@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Confederates never did get to bring their battle flag into the US Capitol, at least not until Jan 6 2021…

    • HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      Also isn’t it insanely difficult for any independent or small party candidate to appear on any US ballot nowadays, mainly due to the BS that the two established parties pull? George Washington was the only ever independent candidate to be elected right?

    • catshit_dogfart@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      Moreover, Alexander H. Stephens and West Hughes Humphreys were never found guilty of a crime, there was no court case or conviction against them.

      They participated in an insurrection, rebellion, and gave aid or comfort to enemies. (Stephens was the vice president of the CSA and Humphreys was a judge). Folks in congress didn’t want to be sitting next to a guy who just a few months ago was trying to kill them, so they started writing Section 3. It did not require a crime to be tried or a court ruling to be made, they participated in a rebellion and that’s enough.

      Okay the constitution isn’t written for people to wriggle out on technicality.