Dec. 19 (UPI) — The Colorado Supreme Court has disqualified Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s ballot in 2024, in a ruling Tuesday that states the former president is not eligible to run for the White House because of the 14th Amendment’s insurrectionist ban.
Colorado’s ruling, which was 4 to 3, is now on hold until Jan. 4, pending Trump’s appeal to the U.S., Supreme Court.
“We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” the court’s majority wrote Tuesday. “We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”
“We conclude that the foregoing evidence, the great bulk of which was undisputed at trial, established that President Trump engaged in insurrection,” the court added. “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.”
The 14th Amendment states that officials who take an oath to support the U.S. Constitution are banned from future office if they “engaged in insurrection.” The court also rejected Trump’s free speech claims, stating that “President Trump’s speech on Jan. 6 was not protected by the First Amendment.”
In a statement Tuesday night on his campaign website, Donald Trump blasted Colorado’s decision and vowed to appeal “immediately” to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“A ruling party is attempting to amass total control over America by rigging the election against its leading opponent who happens to be a political outsider committed to defending the needs and interests of hardworking Americans,” Trump said. “This is how dictatorships are born.”
“Crooked Joe and the Democrats know they can’t beat us at the ballot box, so their new plan is to nullify every single ‘Trump ballot’ in the nation to keep Biden in the White House,” Trump added.
Colorado is the first state to disqualify Trump from the 2024 election. Last week, a Michigan appeals court ruled that the former president may remain on the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot, stating that there is no sufficient basis “at this time” for the removal of Trump’s name.
Last month, a Colorado district judge also rejected claims that Trump should be barred under the constitutional amendment.
“As a result, the court holds that Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment does not apply to Trump,” Judge Sarah B. Wallace wrote in response to the lawsuit filed by six Republican and unaffiliated voters in Colorado, represented by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
On Tuesday night, Trump Campaign Spokesman Steven Cheung issued a statement, saying an appeal to Colorado’s latest ruling would be filed within hours.
“The Colorado Supreme Court issued a completely flawed decision tonight and we will swiftly file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and a concurrent request for a stay of this deeply undemocratic decision,” Cheung said, adding that the ruling amounts to “election interference.”
“We have full confidence that the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly rule in our favor and finally put an end to these un-American lawsuits.”
