FLASH: Colorado’s Democrat Majority Supreme Court Removes Trump From Ballot

Overturning a Democrat trial judge’s well-reasoned ruling, a divided Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday declared former President Donald Trump ineligible for the White House under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause and removed him from the state’s presidential primary ballot.

The Associated Press reported the decision came from a court whose justices were all appointed by Democratic governors and it marks the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.

“A majority of the court holds that Trump is disqualified from holding the office of president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment,” the court wrote in its 4-3 decision.

Colorado’s highest court overturned a ruling from a district court judge who found that Trump incited an insurrection for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but said he could not be barred from the ballot because it was unclear that the provision was intended to cover the presidency.

Setting up a holiday constitutional crisis, the Colorado court stayed its decision until Jan. 4, or until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the case. Colorado officials say the issue must be settled by Jan. 5, the deadline for the state to print its presidential primary ballots.

Trump’s legal spokeswoman Alina Habba said in a statement Tuesday night: “This ruling, issued by the Colorado Supreme Court, attacks the very heart of this nation’s democracy. It will not stand, and we trust that the Supreme Court will reverse this unconstitutional order.”

And Ms. Habba is right.

Dozens of lawsuits have been filed nationally to disqualify Trump under Section 3, which was designed to keep former Confederates from returning to government after the Civil War. It bars from office anyone who swore an oath to “support” the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against it, and has been used only a handful of times since the decade after the Civil War.

However, Congress has never passed any implementing legislation to put Section 3 of the 14th Amendment into law.

What’s more, Donald Trump has never been charged with or tried for insurrection.

A federal criminal case against him in Washington charges him with conspiracy, and a similar state case in Georgia charges him with racketeering, however, the 14th Amendment does not specify a process to determine who “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

So, who should decide who engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” against the United States? Is it a Democrat county judge in one of the Party’s urban strongholds, like Atlanta, Detroit or New York City?

Colorado Supreme Court Justices Richard L. Gabriel, Melissa Hart, Monica Márquez and Hood ruled for the petitioners. Chief Justice Brian D. Boatright dissented, arguing the constitutional questions were too complex to be solved in a state hearing. Justices Maria E. Berkenkotter and Carlos Samour also dissented.

“Our government cannot deprive someone of the right to hold public office without due process of law,” Samour wrote in his dissent. “Even if we are convinced that a candidate committed horrible acts in the past — dare I say, engaged in insurrection — there must be procedural due process before we can declare that individual disqualified from holding public office.”

The Arizona Supreme Court said that because there's no statutory process in federal law to enforce Section 3 of the 14th amendment, you can't enforce it, and left Mr. Trump on the Arizona ballot.

Justice Carlos Samour is right, not only has the Colorado Supreme Court majority deprived Donald Trump of procedural due process, but it also never even charged him with a crime – if such a crime as “insurrection” within the meaning of Section 3 of the 14th amendment even exists.

• 2024 ballot

• Colorado Supreme Court

• Donald Trump

• Blue state secretaries of state

• 14th Amendment Section 3

• Arizona Democrat Secretary of State Adrian Fontes

• Denver District Court Judge Sarah B. Wallace

• Civil War Confederates

• insurrection

• January 6 riot

• Cowboys for Trump cofounder Couy Griffin

• Arizona Supreme Court

• Arizona Secretary of State