Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday declared former President Donald Trump ineligible for the White House under the US Constitution’s insurrection clause and removed him from the state’s presidential primary ballot.
The decision from a court whose justices were all appointed by Democratic governors marks the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.
“A majority of the court holds that Trump is disqualified from holding the office of president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment,” the court said in its 4-3 decision.
Colorado’s top court overturned a ruling from a district court judge who found that Trump incited an insurrection for his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but said he could not be barred from the ballot because it was unclear that the provision was intended to cover the presidency.
“This ruling, issued by the Colorado Supreme Court, attacks the very heart of this nation’s democracy. It will not stand, and we trust that the Supreme Court will reverse this unconstitutional order,” Trump’s legal spokeswoman Alina Habba said in a statement.
Trump didn’t mention the decision during a rally Tuesday evening in Waterloo, Iowa, but his campaign sent out a fundraising email citing what it called a “tyrannical ruling.”
Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel labeled the decision Election interference and said the RNC’s legal team intends to help Trump fight the ruling.
Notably, Trump lost Colorado by 13 percentage points in 2020 and doesn’t need the state to win next year’s presidential election.
