Judge Sarah B. Wallace ruled in the court case challenging former President Donald Trump’s right of eligibility to appear on the 2024 Colorado ballot, on Friday, issuing a split decision that appears ready-made to lift it immediately to the Colorado Supreme Court, and set it up to go directly to the United States Supreme Court.
After a week of hearing evidence, the Denver judge ruled on the eligibility challenge, finding that Donald Trump remains eligible for the state’s 2024 presidential ballot even though he engaged in an insurrection. With that decision, the Denver court has joined courts elsewhere that have rejected attempts to disqualify the leading Republican candidate. The case centered on the interpretation of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars insurrectionists from holding state or federal office again.
Former President Donald Trump mug shot Source: August 24, 2023. Fulton County Sheriff’s Office/Handout
But this ruling relies on an interpretation of the wording in the United States Constitution for those employees and elected officials who swear to “support the Constitution”, while the person taking the oath of office of President of the United States swear to “uphold, protect and defend” the Constitution.
But Wallace ruled that this didn’t apply to presidents who weren’t specifically called out as an “officer” of the United States within the Constitutional wording, and pointed out the discrepancies of wording.
This is the fourth ruling in which a judge has concluded it is not their role to resolve Trump’s current eligibility. Similar cases have been tried in New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Michigan and all have allowed Trump’s name on the ballot.
Wallace’s decision is contained in a 102-page order, which appeared to split hairs. In her November 27 order she wrote, “To be clear, part of the Court’s decision is its reluctance to embrace an interpretation which would disqualify a presidential candidate without a clear, unmistakable indication that such is the intent.”
But while she ordered that Trump’s name can appear on the ballot, she issued a scathing denunciation of Trump’s conduct leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol. Ahead of any pending indictments (there are 91 counts against the former president at this writing) she issued a conclusion that Trump did incite an insurrection to halt the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.
In her written order, she wrote, “Trump cultivated a culture that embraced political violence through his consistent endorsement of the same … he responded to growing threats of violence and intimidation in the lead-up to the certification by amplifying his false claims of election fraud.”
“He convened a large crowd on the date of the certification in Washington, D.C., focused them on the certification process, told them their country was being stolen from them, called for strength and action, and directed them to the Capitol where the certification was about to take place.”
Secretary of State Jena Griswold, speaking Friday evening with MSNBC, noted that she hadn’t taken any position on Trump’s eligibility, but she did add that she had asked the judge to make a firm decision on whether Trump’s alleged participation in an insurrection rendered him disqualified.
“The Court determined that Donald Trump is eligible to be placed on the Colorado ballot in the March Presidential Primary. This decision may be appealed. As Secretary of State, I will always ensure that every voter can make their voice heard in free and fair elections,” said Griswold’s statement.
In Colorado, the names that will be printed on the primary ballots need to be finalized by January 5, 2024 for our primary on Super Tuesday.
The decision begs the question: if judges are ruling that it is not their responsibility to determine Trump’s eligibility to be on the ballot — whose responsibility is it?
It takes some impressive pretzel logic to conclude that the President isn’t a part of the very government he leads. There will be an appeal, but the ultimate outcome of this case doesn’t matter.
Trump lost the popular vote in 2016. He lost the popular vote and the electoral college in 2020. He’s presided over a parade of losers that he has endorsed in races all across the country since 2018. He led the Republicans to a Red Wave that turned out to be more of a Blue Trickle, a failure to regain control of the Senate, and to losses of numerous previously reliably red seats in State Houses and State capitols all across the country. He brags about being the one guy who made it possible for Roe to be overturned, an action that has energized Democratic Party voters all across the country. He was already awful and gross and weird in 2016, and he’s only gotten more awful and gross and weird since then. At this point, his base mainly consists of barely-literate ill-informed conspiracy theorists who are prone to violence, gullible goofs, people who value a tax break more than they value basic human decency, and men who wear mullets without a trace of irony. Just watch a few YouTube videos where reporters interview people waiting to enter a Trump rally and tell me I’m wrong. This is a “special” group of people.
He is electoral poison. It is clear that the majority of American voters already won’t vote for him, and he does his best to alienate and outrage more and more people every day. People shouldn’t worry about him winning in 2024. What people should be worrying about and planning for is what happens when he and his violent supporters refuse to accept his loss in 2024.