Colorado Supreme Court Bars Trump from the Ballot.
In a carefully reasoned decision, the Colorado Supreme Court banned Trump from the primary ballot in that state. It found extensive and unrefuted evidence that he had engaged in insurrection; he had taken an oath (the Presidential oath), and he held office (the Presidency), and he was seeking office (the Presidency).
The 14th Amendment, Section 3 was enacted after the Civil War, it bans those who engaged in an insurrection against the US from holding elected office unless a 2/3rds vote from Congress creates an exemption for them. “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability” https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/amendment-14/section-3/
It’s a case of first impression because of the highly unusual circumstance of a President not accepting his electoral defeat and trying by multiple unlawful means and avenues to cling to power. We all or nearly all of us saw and heard the violent takeover of the US Capitol by Trump supporters on TV, saw and heard Trump organizing, exhorting and urging them on before, during and after. I wondered then and no longer wonder why he and his administration had not called out the National Guard or made any preparations to secure the US Capitol.
And since then the insurrection has been replayed so many times that it has lost its power to shock, and we are numbed to inertia by the audacity of the effort to overthrow his election defeat. The Colorado Supreme Court has had the courage to hold the ex-President to account in the face of so many who have been intimidated by him and his supporters who have for the most part taken over the House GOP. The case next goes to the US Supreme Court which now must decide in this and several other cases whether Trump and his closest conspirators shall be accountable for his and their extraordinary efforts to overthrow a free and fair election that he overwhelmingly lost.