According to a court order, the name of the former US President must initially be removed from the ballot papers for 2024 in the state of Colorado. The reason for this was a violation of the “ban on insurrection” enshrined in the US Constitution as a result of the events of the storming of the Capitol in January 2021. Trump has until January 5th to file an objection.
The Supreme Court of the US state of Colorado made the surprising decision on Tuesday. The decision only applies to this US state, but according to the US media it is seen as a “historic judgment” that will “shake up the 2024 presidential election campaign”. Colorado election officials have said Trump’s legal team has until Jan. 5 to respond. This is the legal deadline for drawing up and announcing the list of candidates for the Republican primaries, scheduled for March 5 next year.
The Supreme Court of Colorado assumes that Trump should be disqualified for the office of president because of his alleged active role in the so-called storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. This means that he is not allowed to take part as a candidate in his party’s upcoming primaries in Colorado. The panel’s narrow 4-3 ruling marks the first time a U.S. court has actually barred a presidential candidate from a ballot on the basis of a constitutional provision from 1868 barring seditionists from holding office. An article from the US broadcaster CNN explains the background to the legal argument:
“The 14th Amendment, ratified after the Civil War, states that officials who have sworn an oath to the Constitution are barred from holding future office if they ‘incite insurrection.’ But the amendment’s language is vague and does not specifically mention the presidency and has only been used twice since 1919.”
Donald Trump’s team immediately said on Tuesday that it would “swiftly appeal” the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision. The US Supreme Court has a 6-3 Republican majority, with three of the justices appointed by Trump himself. Steven Cheung, spokesman for the current Trump election campaign, said:
“The Colorado Supreme Court made a completely wrong decision tonight. We will immediately appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States while also filing a motion to stay this deeply undemocratic decision. We have every confidence that the US Supreme Court will act quickly will decide in our favor and finally put an end to these un-American lawsuits.”
If a decision is made in Trump’s favor, it would mean that Trump’s name could be placed on the ballot, even if the case at hand is not finalized by January 4th. Colorado is one of more than a dozen US states that will hold primaries on March 5th, which is therefore known in the US as Super Tuesday.
Lawsuits in the same spirit against Trump had previously been dismissed in the US states of Minnesota and New Hampshire for procedural reasons. The current process can be seen as a direct influence on the 2024 US election campaign, as well as a reaction to the recent initiation of impeachment proceedings against the incumbent US President Joe Biden. According to the latest US polls, Trump is the clear favorite in the internal Republican race for the presidential nomination. The Republican Party primaries begin after the New Year in mid-January in the US state of Iowa. The winner of the primary elections will then run against the respective leading candidate of the Democratic Party in the presidential election in November 2024. According to the Democrats’ previous plans, this should again be the incumbent Joe Biden.
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