Late on Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court agreed to review a case that raises the question of whether former President Trump should be barred from the 2024 ballot under the 14th Amendment. A previous ruling by a lower court held that Trump’s actions in inciting the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, constituted insurrection. However, the court concluded that the constitutional prohibition on holding office after engaging in “insurrection or rebellion” did not apply to the presidency.
According to The Hill, both Trump and the group of citizens seeking to prevent his inclusion on the ballot have appealed the decision. Trump’s appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court expresses agreement with the part of the ruling allowing him to remain on the state’s ballot but contests other aspects, asserting that the district court made legal and factual findings unsupported by the law.
The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a left-leaning group representing four Republicans and two independent Colorado voters, filed the lawsuit. They urged the state’s top court to affirm that the 14th Amendment indeed applies to the presidency. The 14th Amendment bars individuals from holding “any office… under the United States” if they engaged in insurrection after taking an oath as “an officer of the United States” to “support” the Constitution.
In the lower court ruling, Judge Sarah Wallace argued that the language of the 14th Amendment does not preclude Trump from appearing on the ballot, regardless of the severity of his actions on January 6. Wallace emphasized that the presidency is not explicitly listed as an “office… under the United States” in the 14th Amendment, and she asserted that Trump was not an “officer of the United States.”
CREW, in its appeal brief, contended that Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, enacted after the Civil War, disqualifies individuals from federal or state office if they engaged in insurrection against the Constitution after previously taking an oath to support it.
This case is part of a broader pattern of 14th Amendment lawsuits against Trump occurring across the country, with various states handling the legal challenges in different ways.