Colorado Supreme Court rightly calls out Trump’s insurrection | Editorial
The Centennial State's justices have spoken, but it will likely fall to the U.S. Supreme Court to decide if the Constitution or politics will rule the day.
Donald Trump’s tumultuous time on the political stage has been filled with one unprecedented event after another, including two impeachments, four criminal indictments, his company’s tax fraud conviction, and a federal court’s finding that he defamed and raped a woman.
Now comes a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that disqualifies Trump from holding office again because he engaged in the deadly insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. The 213-page opinion said that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prohibits anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding office.
Could this finally be the beginning of the end for the Trump wrecking ball?
The ruling marks the first time a court has kept a presidential candidate off the ballot. That’s because it is the first time a president tried to overturn an election. While the ruling is clear, the political ramifications will be monumental.
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Similar legal efforts to remove Trump from the ballot have been filed in several states, including Pennsylvania. Lawsuits in Minnesota and New Hampshire were dismissed on procedural grounds, while a Michigan judge ruled the issue was political and not for him to decide.
Gene Stilp, a political activist who filed a pending suit in federal court in Harrisburg, told the Editorial Board he planned to file a second suit in state court next month that mirrors the Colorado case.
Trump plans to appeal the Colorado decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. True to form, he immediately began fundraising off the ruling and blaming — without evidence — President Joe Biden.
It’s unclear if the high court will take up the Colorado case or try to avoid it. The court has already agreed to decide whether Trump is immune from criminal prosecution for his efforts to overturn the election. With the primaries set to begin next year, time is of the essence.
No matter what the court decides, the political fallout will be immense. The Supreme Court has an opportunity to rehabilitate its shabby image and remind everyone that we are a government of laws, not men.
The court’s independence has been diminished over the past quarter century, starting with the way it wrongly intervened in the 2000 presidential recount in Florida to hand the White House to George W. Bush.
Trust in the court fell further after Senate Republicans delayed appointing a justice to replace the late Antonin Scalia until after the 2016 election, and then rushed to install a conservative justice on the court a week before the 2020 election. The result is a politically tainted court with a 6-3 conservative majority — including three members appointed during Trump’s one term — who promptly overturned a 50-year right to abortion.
Confidence in the court further eroded as conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have come under criticism for accepting lavish trips and gifts from billionaire Republican donors, including some with business before the court.
Trump supporters — and even some critics — argue it is antidemocratic to remove him from the ballot and that voters should choose the next president, not the courts.
But the Constitution stands firmly in the way of that argument.
J. Michael Luttig, a former conservative judge who coauthored an article that detailed why Trump is disqualified from running for president, said Trump’s “conduct” is what gives rise to the disqualification.
Just as the Constitution says no one under the age of 35 can be president, it also makes clear that no person who took an oath to support the Constitution shall hold any office if they engaged in insurrection or rebellion.
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Trump’s role in the insurrection is clear. The bipartisan House committee used sworn testimony from scores of Republican witnesses to assemble an 814-page report that detailed Trump’s efforts to overturn the election leading up to Jan. 6.
Many leading Republicans agreed.
“President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” said former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney.
Days after the insurrection, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said, “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters.”
After Trump was impeached for his role in the insurrection, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said, “There’s no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.”
Despite a mountain of evidence, Trump has never been held accountable for his words and deeds. It now falls to the U.S. Supreme Court to decide if the Constitution or politics will rule the day.