The Colorado Supreme Court’s order removing former President Donald Trump from the state’s election ballot appears designed to exhaust the former president and harm his reputation, but will likely fail if the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to review the case, according to former U.S. Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark.
On Tuesday evening, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that even though he has not been convicted of a specific criminal charge, President Trump’s efforts to dispute the 2020 election results—including speaking to crowds of supporters before the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but telling them, “You have to go home now; we have to have peace,” after learning of the breach in a since deleted social media post—constituted insurrectionist activity and he should thus be disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, also known as the “disqualification clause,” states that officials who have sworn oaths to uphold the Constitution who then engaged in insurrection or rebellion are disqualified from holding office.
