Elections 2024: Trump ineligible to contest presidential polls, rules Colorado SC

• Order may affect Trump's status for the general elections.
• Decision comes because of his role in US Capitol attack.
• “These actions constituted direct participation in insurrection.”

The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday declared former US President Donald Trump ineligible for the state’s 2024 ballot for presidential candidate under the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban”.

The 4-3 ruling will wait until January 4 as it is expected to be challenged by Trump in the US apex court. The decision came because of his role in the US Capitol attack by his supporters on January 6, 2021, CNN reported.

The historic decision makes Donald Trump the first US presidential candidate disqualified under the provision that prevented those involved in “insurrection or rebellion” from holding office.

The court order though applies to Colorado, however, it may affect Trump's status in the country for the next year's November 5 general elections. Neutral US election observers view Colorado as Democratic, meaning that President Joe Biden is expected to win the state no matter what Trump's fate is there.

The Colorado SC bench opined that even when the siege on the Capitol was fully underway, Trump did not merely incite the insurrection, he continued to support it by repeatedly demanding that Vice President (Mike) Pence refuse to perform his constitutional duty and by calling Senators to persuade them to stop the counting of electoral votes.

“These actions constituted overt, voluntary, and direct participation in the insurrection,” they said.

“We conclude that the foregoing evidence, the great bulk of which was undisputed at trial, established that President Trump engaged in insurrection,” they opined. “President Trump’s direct and express efforts, over several months, exhorting his supporters to march to the Capitol to prevent what he falsely characterized as an alleged fraud on the people of this country were indisputably overt and voluntary.”

The court also said Trump’s January 6 speech was not protected by the First Amendment, freedom of speech.

Trump vowed to appeal the ruling in the US Supreme Court, and the Colorado court said it would delay the effect of its decision until at least January 4, 2024, to allow for an appeal.

The ruling sets the stage for the Supreme Court, whose 6-3 conservative majority includes three Trump appointees, to consider whether Trump is eligible to serve another term as president.

The lawsuit is viewed as a test case for a wider effort to disqualify Trump from state ballots under section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was enacted after the US Civil War to keep supporters of the confederacy from serving in the government.

The Colorado court concluded that the US Constitution bars Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2024, from appearing on the ballot because of his role instigating violence at the Capitol as lawmakers met to certify the results of the 2020 election. The court's majority acknowledged the decision was "uncharted territory."

"We do not reach these conclusions lightly," the majority justices wrote. "We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach."

Trump's campaign called the court decision "undemocratic."

"The Colorado Supreme Court issued a completely flawed decision tonight and we will swiftly file an appeal to the United States Supreme Court," a spokesperson from the Trump campaign said.

The decision reverses a ruling by a lower court judge who found Trump engaged in insurrection by inciting his supporters to violence, but concluded that, as president, Trump was not an "officer of the United States" who could be disqualified under the amendment.

The Biden campaign declined to comment.

— With additional input from Reuters