- The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Donald Trump is disqualified from the 2024 ballot.
- The court also ruled he cannot hold office, citing the 14th Amendment.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that former President Donald Trump is disqualified from running for president and holding office.
Trump's campaign quickly announced that it would appeal the decision to the US Supreme Court, setting up another high-stakes legal fight that could loom over the 2024 presidential election.
The Colorado court largely sided with a lower district court that ruled that Trump incited protesters before the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot and therefore violated the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. The Colorado Supreme Court stayed its decision until January, allowing the Trump campaign time for an appeal.
In a statement, Trump's campaign blasted Colorado's highest court and vowed they have "full confidence" that the US Supreme Court will overrule the state judges.
"The Colorado Supreme Court issued a completely flawed decision tonight and we will swiftly file an appeal to the United States Supreme Court and a concurrent request for a stay of this deeply undemocratic decision," Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.
If justices hear the case, they could issue their most consequential elections-related decision since the Supreme Court effectively ended the 2000 presidential election in its controversial Bush v. Gore decision. Other states are considering similar challenges to Trump's standing, meaning that if Colorado's ruling is allowed to stand, the former president's potential status on general election ballots could be thrown into jeopardy.
The nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, initially filed the petition in September, arguing that Trump should be barred from running for president over his actions during the January 6 insurrection due to the 14th Amendment.
The 14th Amendment has a section specifying that anyone who has "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" or has "given aid or comfort" to those carrying out an insurrection is ineligible to run for office.
Critics of the suit have argued that CREW's argument and Colorado's subsequent ruling limit voters' rights to choose who to cast their ballot for — but election law scholar and Notre Dame Law School professor Derek Muller told Business Insider the existing qualifications for office are designed to prevent people from voting for who they want to.
"The Constitution doesn't allow an 18-year-old to become president or a foreign national to become president, and Barack Obama or George W. Bush can't run for president again, either. So we have these provisions of the Constitution that are designed to limit or place constraints on voters," Muller said.
He added: "Now, this is a deeply contested question. Unlike dealing with an 18-year-old or Barack Obama, where we know they're obviously not qualified, this is a contentious issue fraught with major questions. I think it's probably an instinct that some people have to let the political process play out, but at the same time, if the law says you're not qualified to serve, then there are mechanisms in place to try to exclude ineligible candidates from the ballot."
In 2016, Hillary Clinton won Colorado's nine electoral votes with a 4.9% margin of victory. Ted Cruz won a majority of the delegates in the state's 2016 Republican presidential caucuses. President Joe Biden won 55% of the vote in 2020 with a margin of 13.50%.
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