Tuesday saw the disqualification of Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president and the former US President, from Colorado’s presidential primary. The Colorado Supreme Court rendered an unusual decision, declaring that Trump’s acts encouraging the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, disqualify him from holding the office of US president.
Section 3 of the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which prohibits anybody involved in “insurrection or rebellion” from holding federal office, rendered Trump ineligible for office. This was the first time a presidential contender had been disqualified under Section 3.
Here is what Trump’s disqualification from Colorado entails:
The Colorado Supreme Court’s decision on Wednesday is exclusive to Colorado. Furthermore, it solely refers to the state’s primary on March 5, which is when Republicans will select their nominee for US president.
According to the Guardian, this implies that Trump may not be included on the Colorado ballot for that particular vote, but he may still run in subsequent Republican primaries. The general election is not specifically addressed by the Colorado court decision.
But Colorado put a temporary hold on its decision until January 4, giving the US Supreme Court time to consider whether to take the case, according to the Guardian.
In the meantime, the Trump team said that it will challenge the Colorado decision in the US Supreme Court.
If the US Supreme Court rules “directly on whether Trump is disqualified under the Constitution, their ruling would apply in every state, not only Colorado,” Bloomberg stated, this would likely be a historic case.
The report went on to say that “it’s likely that the justices will overturn the Colorado decision” due to the case’s unique circumstances and the makeup of the court.
Will the decision affect the US election in 2024?
The outcome of the election in November 2024 may not be affected by the decision, even if it makes it through Supreme Court review. This is because, according to Reuters, Trump is not expected to win Colorado given its strong Democratic leanings and does not need to.
Nine of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency are held by Colorado. In the 2020 election, Joe Biden had won the state by a margin of over 13 percentage points. The BBC claims that because Trump is much ahead of his Republican opponents, he can still win his party’s candidacy without running in Colorado.
Conversely, a report from the BBC stated that there could be “wider implications for the general election” related to the Colorado case.
Similar challenges are being filed to prevent Trump from contesting in the elections of 2024. Furthermore, there might be more of these lawsuits brought in contested states that Trump has to win in order to win. Should judges in states with higher competition levels adopt Tuesday’s decision, Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign may encounter significant obstacles.
“While none of those courts would be bound by the Colorado decision, judges will likely study it closely while reaching their own conclusions,” according to Reuters.
Trump has so far encountered numerous 14th Amendment challenges in different states. Nine courts dismissed lawsuits citing the 14th Amendment, according to reports: the Minnesota Supreme Court, a district court in Washington, federal courts in Arizona, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Florida; the district court in Colorado, which sparked an appeals battle there; and the Michigan Supreme Court.
Right now, Trump is the front-runner in the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential selection contest. The Trump team has pledged to file an appeal with the US Supreme Court against the Colorado Supreme Court’s “flawed” decision.
The fallout
Aside from this, Republican contender for president Vivek Ramaswamy promised to withdraw from the Colorado GOP primary if former US President Donald Trump is not reinstated.
Ramaswamy called out his fellow GOP presidential candidates on X, saying, “I pledge to withdraw from the Colorado GOP primary unless Trump is also allowed to be on the state’s ballot, and I demand that Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, and Nikki Haley to do the same immediately – or else they are tacitly endorsing this illegal manoeuvre, which will have disastrous consequences for our country.”
Chris Christie, another well-known Republican presidential contender, claimed that voters, not judges, should decide whether or not to “prevent” Trump from running for office again.