Judge Rejects Taking Trump Off Colorado Ballot

UPDATE Nov 17, 2023 6:40 PM CST

A judge on Friday decided to keep Donald Trump on Colorado's presidential primary ballot, rejecting the argument that the US Constitution bars anyone from holding office who "engaged in insurrection." District Judge Sarah Wallace ruled that the clause does not apply to the presidential candidates, the AP reports, because the 14th Amendment doesn't specify that it includes the president when it refers to an "officer of the United States." The judge did, however, find that Trump engaged in insurrection, per the New York Times.

Sep 6, 2023 2:00 PM CDT

The liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington—CREW—is trying to keep Donald Trump off the 2024 GOP primary ballot in Colorado. The group says it helped six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters file a lawsuit Wednesday to block the former president's name from appearing as per the 14th Amendment, the New York Times reports. Section 3 of the amendment states that nobody who has taken an oath to defend the Constitution can hold office after they "have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same." A theory the Times describes as a "legal long shot" argues that Trump's attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss disqualifies him from holding office again.

"While Section 3 has not been tested often in the last 150 years, due to lack of insurrections," CREW says on its website, the group represented New Mexico citizens who successfully sought to have a county commissioner ousted for taking part in the Capitol riot. CREW says the judge in that case determined that Jan. 6 was an "insurrection under the Constitution and that someone who helped to incite it—even if not personally violent—had engaged in insurrection and was disqualified from office." The AP reports it was the first use of the amendment in a century; in 1919, Congress refused to seat a socialist who it argued provided aid and comfort to America's enemies in WWI.

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Beyond keeping Trump off the ballot, the lawsuit asks that a state court remove "uncertainty" by declaring that the former president is disqualified from holding office. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung slammed the lawsuit in a statement to ABC: "The people who are pursuing this absurd conspiracy theory and political attack on President Trump are stretching the law beyond recognition," he said. The AP calls the suit "likely the initial step in a legal challenge that seems destined for the US Supreme Court." (More Donald Trump 2024 stories.)