In a bombshell piece of news late Tuesday afternoon, December 19, the Colorado Supreme Court has issued a ruling that former President and presumed GOP candidate Donald Trump is disqualified from the state’s 2024 election ballot.
Former President Donald Trump mug shot Source: August 24, 2023. Fulton County Sheriff’s Office/Handout
The decision was a clear rebuke to Trump’s campaign and is based on section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which says that “no person” can serve as an officer of the United States who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States.
The court found that Trump not only engaged in an insurrection on January 6, 2021, but also that his incitement of the crowd that day to “march to the Capitol” and “fight like hell” did not constitute free speech. The ruling reverses a lower court ruling.
The stay of the order is in place until January 4, 2024, one day before the January 5, 2024 deadline for Colorado ballots to be finalized for the March Presidential primary. The stay allows for an appeal to be filed.
Trump is facing four indictments totalling 91 counts for his actions in plotting election fraud, a fake elector scheme, and spiriting away highly classified documents, including nuclear secrets.
During my tenure on our BVSD school board (1987-1995), we had to handle the cases of two administrators engaging in criminal activities.
Since our BVSD policy manual was seriously out of date, we hired a very good lawyer specializing in Colorado School Law, who (to avoid liability on our part) advised us to either follow our policies as written or to re-write them to meet current circumstances. In other words, no cherry-picking policies to fit the situation.
That said, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment can’t be conveniently ignored due to political circumstances of the moment, such as “Section 3 was written to address post-Civil War politics, so it’s not valid today.”
Just keep in mind, if we set that clear precedent, the remainder of our Constitution isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.
Gary E. Goms
Buena Vista
There is at least one guy down in The Villages that is really angry today. Maybe the Colorado Supreme Court should have asked his expert legal opinion before they made their decision. 😂
Hurray for the Colorado Supreme Court following the law!
😀