As the Colorado Republican Party appeals a court decision that ruled earlier this month that Trump is ineligible for office, the former president will still be on the 2024 primary ballot for certification next week, according to the state’s secretary of state.
“With the appeal filed, Donald Trump will be included as a candidate on Colorado’s 2024 Presidential Primary Ballot when certification occurs on January 5, 2024, unless the US Supreme Court declines to take the case or otherwise affirms the Colorado Supreme Court ruling,” Jena Griswold’s office said in a press release.
On December 19, the Colorado Supreme Court issued a 4-3 ruling denying the former president the Republican nomination, citing his unconstitutional involvement in an “insurrection” against the US government on January 6, 2021.
A provision in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prohibits former officials who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from running for re-election to public office, the New York Post noted. However, there has never been an official insurrection charge against Trump and he has never been found guilty of such a crime.
“Donald Trump engaged in insurrection and was disqualified under the Constitution from the Colorado ballot. The Colorado Supreme Court got it right. This decision is now being appealed,” Griswold said in a separate statement. “I urge the US Supreme Court to act quickly given the upcoming presidential primary election.”
The 77-year-old former president’s disqualification has allegedly caused the Colorado Republican Party “irreparable harm,” and on Wednesday, they petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn that ruling.
“The state has interfered in the primary election by unreasonably restricting the party’s ability to select its candidates,” states the 45-page petition from the Colorado GOP and the nonprofit American Center for Law and Justice.
“As a natural and inevitable result, the state has interfered with the party’s ability to place on the general election ballot the candidate of its choice. And it has done so based on a subjective claim of insurrection the state lacks any constitutional authority to make.”
Before the January 5 deadline for the certification of candidate names by both parties for the Colorado ballot, the high court must decide on the ruling. This decision is still pending.
The Centennial State is part of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, and in reaching its decision, the Colorado court referenced a previous ruling by Justice Neil Gorsuch of the Supreme Court. Neither Trump nor his lawyers have taken the Colorado verdict’s decision to the Supreme Court for review.
Before its first conference day of the new year, which is on January 5, the US Supreme Court may still issue its stay of the decision, even though the Colorado Supreme Court has extended the deadline for its ruling that disqualifies Trump until January 4, 2024.
Following the former president’s scheduled appeal in federal court in Washington, DC, on his four-count indictment for attempting to overturn the 2020 election results, the primary in the Centennial State will take place on March 5.
CNN analyst and New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman revealed that Trump is “not happy” about being associated with a “charge of insurrection,” but his camp views the ballot ban in Colorado as “a gift.”
Haberman said that Trump’s advisers see the ruling as a “gift” that will help his 2024 campaign.
In response to a question about the ruling, Habberman said: “They generally see it, Kaitlan, as a gift. I mean, Trump is not happy about any of these cases, particularly cases that tie him, to a charge of insurrection. But they see the way that they anticipate this will play out. As you know, they are going to appeal. They’re going to ask the Supreme Court to take it up. The Supreme Court doesn’t have to. If they don’t, it’s affirming the decision, which I think becomes complicated, although they could always affirm it.”
“They feel pretty good about their chances that it will get overturned. And either way, they see this as something that they can use, to argue that he is being victimized. It’s easy, for voters, to understand, Kaitlan, which is, effort to throw someone off the ballot. Some of these legal cases, the criminal cases that he’s facing are more complicated,” Haberman added.
Kayleigh McEnany, a former White House press secretary in the Trump administration, also recently tore into the Colorado Supreme Court over its recent decision.
McEnany slammed the left’s shameless attempt to delegitimize the Supreme Court.