Earlier this month, the Colorado State Supreme Court voted 4-3 that Trump is ineligible to run for the presidency, thereby unable to appear on the state’s ballot. According to the four justices who voted in the majority, the 14th Amendment renders Trump ineligible to be president.
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The Colorado Republican Party’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is still pending, but the Colorado Secretary of State’s office has already weighed in on the matter and says that Trump will remain on the ballot. For now.
“Donald Trump will be included as a candidate on Colorado’s 2024 Presidential Primary Ballot when certification occurs on January 5, 2024, unless the U.S. Supreme Court declines to take the case or otherwise affirms the Colorado Supreme Court ruling,” the Colorado Secretary of State’s office said in a statement.
This is hardly Secretary of State Jena Griswold defying the will of the state Supreme Court.
“Donald Trump engaged in insurrection and was disqualified under the Constitution from the Colorado ballot. The Colorado Supreme Court got it right,” Griswold claimed without evidence. “This decision is now being appealed. I urge the U.S. Supreme Court to act quickly, given the upcoming presidential primary election.”
The Colorado Supreme Court ruling essentially declared that even though Trump has never tried for or been convicted of sedition or participating in an insurrection, he is nevertheless guilty.
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There’s a good reason why Trump has never been charged. Simply put, the allegations fall apart when you consider the evidence. Trump was still addressing the crowd when the Capitol violence erupted, and there is substantial proof that different groups had planned to storm the Capitol well in advance.
Even Trump’s words on that day disprove the insurrection claims. He explicitly urged his supporters to partake in peaceful protest, stating during his speech, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
Related: Here’s What You Should Know About the Four Justices Who Deemed Trump Ineligible to Run for President
The fact that the Colorado Supreme Court and even the Colorado Secretary of State insist that Trump should be treated as guilty of a crime for which he is not been tried or convicted makes it likely that the Supreme Court will take up this case, especially since various other states have rejected similar efforts to remove him from the ballot. Experts on both sides of the aisle believe it will be overturned.
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Some Republicans have responded to the Colorado Supreme Court ruling by suggesting that Biden should be removed from the ballot in other states for insurrection as well as he has allowed illegal immigrants to come across the border into our country in record numbers.
“Seeing what happened in Colorado makes me think — except we believe in democracy in Texas — maybe we should take Joe Biden off the ballot in Texas for allowing 8 million people to cross the border since he’s been president, disrupting our state far more than anything anyone else has done in recent history,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham before Christmas.