Key points:
- The Colorado Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision that former President Donald Trump is constitutionally ineligible to run for office in 2024 due to his conduct on January 6, 2021, interpreting the 14th Amendment’s ban on insurrectionists holding public office.
- The justices concluded that Trump’s actions to prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election and stop the peaceful transfer of power were overt and voluntary, thus disqualifying him from holding the office of President under Section Three.
- The ruling has been stayed until January 4, pending appeal, and has sparked intense reactions across the political landscape, with three of the judges dissenting from the majority opinion.
In a landmark decision that has sent shockwaves through the political landscape, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump is constitutionally ineligible to run for office in 2024 due to his conduct on January 6, 2021.
The court’s ruling hinges on the interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s ban on insurrectionists holding public office. This unprecedented ruling is being hailed as a “freeze-in-your-tracks” moment in American politics. Legal experts across the country are now closely examining the potential nationwide implications of this decision.
In a 4-3 ruling that is expected to be appealed soon, the majority of the seven justices concluded that the former president “engaged in insurrection.” They pointed to “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” as being “indisputably overt and voluntary”.
Furthermore, they stated that “the evidence amply showed that President Trump undertook all these actions to aid and further a common unlawful purpose that he himself conceived and set in motion: prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election and stop the peaceful transfer of power”.
In light of this, the justices concluded that “because President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Secretary to list President Trump as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot”.
The justices have stayed their ruling until January 4, pending appeal.
Three of the judges dissented from the majority opinion: Chief Justice Brian D. Boatright and Justices Carlos A. Samour Jr. and Maria E. Berkenkotter.
Stay tuned for more updates on this developing story.
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