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

  • whofearsthenight
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    10 months ago

    The whole primary is the punchline. It’s either going to be Trump as the nominee, or Biden is going to sweep. R’s are far too racist to nominate Vivek, and even if everyone else in the primary died I have a feeling they’d just write in Tucker or something. That leaves Haley, who is trying to appeal to a Republican base that hasn’t existed for 15-20 years, and DeSantis, who is trying to run as the “is Pepsi okay?” to Trump’s Coke, while he also seems to be simultaneously mumbling “dude Coke is so much better.” The only way this makes any sense for him is if he thinks that Trump is likely to be in jail or barred from running, because that’s the only way he’s getting the nomination.

    I kinda wish that weren’t the case. If it were Biden v DeSantis, Biden sweeps. DeSantis is far too extreme for dems and probably even slightly center/slightly left of center, his whole campaign seems to be designed as if he just has a cuck fetish. And the one thing that I think everyone can all agree on is that as soon as he opens his mouth, you just get the overwhelming urge to shove him in a locker. I also think that almost no one likes Trump’s policies, they just like him and it’s pure cult of personality (and the way they vote seems to confirm that; Trump-like candidates lose, it’s only Trump that has any traction) and DeSantis obviously does not have that. And he’d be running against an incumbent, which is already an uphill battle.

    • Bennettiquette@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      love your come/pepsi metaphor. i think it was a piece in the atlantic not too long ago comparing desantis to sweet-n-low and trump to high-fructose corn syrup. but that was describing him at his peak. if memory serves that was just before one of his staffers was publicly fired as the fall guy for a neonazi pro-desantis clip that went viral. right around the puddingfingers incident but before he decided to single-handed bring down disney. he has fallen so far so fast.

      it will be interesting to see how haley fares in this. i have some of those “old republicans” in my family who hope haley will wind back the party’s clock pre-trump. a nice fantasy. i do wonder how large that demographic is. she is pulling in koch support so there are big players trying to move some pieces. but i certainly don’t see it actually happening.

      i definitely get the sense that this is going to be a vicious and chaotic election cycle no matter how it plays out.

      • whofearsthenight
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        10 months ago

        Right now, Haley is polling significantly behind DeSantis, who is already significantly behind Trump. I honestly thought it was more likely that she was angling for a cabinet position or something, but the Koch money injection is interesting. That said, even with money it’s a pretty uphill battle. Given that Trump is far and away the front runner, the number of old school republicans is pretty low. She’s running as if she’s in the general, where a more moderate approach would make a lot of sense (or maybe she’s just trying to dodge creating soundbites for Biden campaign ads which DeSantis seems to have no problem with) but in the Republican primary moderate isn’t going to get very far.

        Even if she manages to clear the first hurdle and overtake DeSantis, she is kinda stuck with her finger’s crossed that Trump is for some reason ineligible to run because he’s such a clear favorite. It would be like going into a room of Swifties and trying to explain why you’re better than Taylor. Spoilers, it doesn’t matter, and the corpse you leave behind is going to look like something out of a horror show.