Former President Donald J. The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether Trump is ineligible for Colorado's Republican primary ballot as he mounts an insurgency in his bid to overturn the 2020 election.
A case that could change the course of this year's presidential election, Feb. It will be argued on the 8th. As the primary season is coming soon, the court will decide it soon.
After Colorado's Supreme Court disqualified him from the ballot last month, Mr. Trump asked the Supreme Court to intervene. That decision is on hold while judges consider the case.
The case changed the meaning of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, ratified after the Civil War, which barred those who had taken an oath to “support the Constitution of the United States” from holding office if they were “engaged in rebellion.” or rebellion against it, or aid or comfort given to its enemies.
Congress can lift the ban, the rule says, but only by a two-thirds vote in each chamber.
Although Section 3 addressed the aftermath of the Civil War, it was written in general terms that, most scholars say, have continued force. Congress granted broad amnesties in 1872 and 1898. But scholars say those acts were retroactive and did not limit the prospective force of the provision.
A Colorado trial judge said Mr. Ruling Trump guilty of sedition, but accepting his argument that Article 3 does not apply to him, Mr. Trump argued that the rule did not apply to the office because he did not take the proper oath of office. Presidency.
The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed the first part of the judgment—Mr. Trump has been on a rampage, including overturning the outcome of the 2020 presidential election; attempt to change the vote count; promoting fake papers of contesting voters; pressuring the Vice President to violate the Constitution; and called for a march on the Capitol.
But the majority changed part of the resolution to say that Article 3 does not apply to the presidency.
“President Trump asks us to hold,” the majority wrote in the unsigned opinion, “that Section 3 disqualifies every oath-breaking insurgent. Except for the most powerful one And it bars perjurers from both state and federal office. Except for the highest one in the land. Both conclusions are inconsistent with the plain language and history of Section 3.
The state Supreme Court addressed several other issues. Congress does not need to act before the courts disqualify candidates, he said. Mr. Trump's eligibility is not a political question outside the court's jurisdiction. The January 6 report of the Board was properly admitted into evidence. Mr. Trump's speech that day was not protected by the First Amendment.
The court further held that states have the power under the Constitution to assess the qualifications of presidential candidates. “If we accept President Trump's view,” the majority wrote, “we cannot exclude from the ballot even candidates who clearly do not meet the age, citizenship, and residency requirements of the Colorado Constitution.”
