Lawsuit to Keep Trump Off the Colorado Ballot to Begin

Former President Donald Trump after delivering remarks at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in Bedminster, N.J., on June 13, 2023. (Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images)

A trial will begin on Oct. 30 in Colorado to decide whether the 14th Amendment will apply to former President Donald Trump, keeping him off the state’s primary ballot as he seeks to run for reelection in 2024.

On Sept. 22, President Trump filed a motion to dismiss the case, along with the Colorado Republican State Central Committee. On Sept. 29, he filed another motion to dismiss with additional Constitutional arguments. On Oct. 11, President Trump’s first motion was denied.

“The Petitioners have alleged that the Secretary is ‘about to’ take an unlawful act because she has publicly stated that she will not exclude Intervenor Trump. This is consistent with public statements that the Secretary welcomes the Court’s direction as well as her Omnibus Response to Motions to Dismiss,” Judge Sarah Wallace wrote on Oct. 20, rejecting the rest of the motions to dismiss the lawsuit.

“Based on the clear language of the statute, the fact that Intervenor Trump has submitted his Major Party Candidate Statement of Intent, and Secretary Griswold’s statements both in public and in this litigation, the Court holds that this matter is ripe for decision.”

She noted that the constitutionality of Colorado’s election law was beyond the court’s jurisdiction and that the court would deal only with violations of the state’s election code.

Lawsuit

The left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington group originally filed a lawsuit on behalf of six Republican and unaffiliated voters in Colorado.

They named Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, arguing that she was illegally keeping President Trump on the state’s primary ballot.

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Ms. Griswold responded with a statement welcoming the court to make a decision.

“I look forward to the Colorado Court’s substantive resolution of the issues and am hopeful that this case will provide guidance to election officials on Trump’s eligibility as a candidate for office,” she said.

Colorado’s voting law is unclear in addressing eligibility, Ms. Griswold pointed out. The statute requires a candidate to be “eligible” but doesn’t list the requirements of eligibility.

14th Amendment

Since President Trump left office, left-leaning groups have floated legal theories of how to ban him from seeking reelection. In 2021, the liberal group Free Speech For People sent letters to election officials across the nation arguing that President Trump was ineligible for office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, but the idea gained little traction.

Recently, several groups have resurrected the theory, suing state secretaries and arguing that the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach constituted an “insurrection.”

The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, in the wake of the Civil War, conferring citizenship and equal protection under the law to all people born and naturalized in the United States. The amendment was intended to protect the rights of former slaves, now citizens. The third section of the amendment prohibited those who had engaged in insurrections or rebellions against the United States from holding civil, military, or elected office without two-thirds approval from both chambers of Congress.

In turn, the state officials being sued have unilaterally declared that the matter is out of their hands and something for the courts to decide.

In some states, including Florida and West Virginia, judges have already dismissed such lawsuits.

New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan said the matter couldn’t even be settled by state courts but would have to be heard before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Chaos, confusion, anger, and frustration” could only be the result if a candidate was on some ballots but not others, he said during a Sept. 13 press conference.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has also claimed that only the U.S. Supreme Court can make such a decision while insisting that it applies to President Trump.

“[The law] doesn’t require that you be convicted of insurrection. It just requires that you have engaged in these acts,” he told MSNBC. “It’s a disqualification from holding office ... and it fits Donald Trump to a T.

“That’s the big question mark through all this—what will the Supreme Court do?”

Mr. Schiff noted that prominent scholars have also endorsed this theory.

Legal experts are fairly mixed on the 14th Amendment disqualification of President Trump from running in 2024, with scholars on both sides of the political aisle arguing for both his disqualification and abandoning the theory. But what they tend to agree on is that only the U.S. Supreme Court can make a decision.

Constitutional expert Mike David previously told The Epoch Times that it was a “bogus and very dangerous” theory.

“If any partisan elected official thinks that they can unilaterally take President Trump off of the ballot under the disqualification clause of the 14th amendment, they are going to face a very rude political and legal awakening,” he said.