President Donald Trump’s supporters are pushing back against a lower court ruling which branded the former president an “insurrectionist” and seek to have him removed from the Colorado ballot.
“Trump has argued that states have no power to judge the qualifications of candidates or that it is a political question. The historical record however suggests that in at least some cases, states have excluded candidates,” said Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, to Newsweek.
At last week’s hearing in the Colorado Supreme Court, lawyers for Trump dismissed the lower court’s ruling, arguing that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment does not apply to presidents.
“How is that not absurd?” Justice Richard Gabriel asked, according to The New York Times.
In an example cited by Muller, he said that California in 1968 had banned Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver from running for office because he hadn’t reached the required age yet.
“There are a number of things that the Colorado Supreme Court must find to exclude him from the ballot, but any one thing in Trump’s favor can keep him on,” Muller said.
The issue now falls to a Supreme Court of seven Democrat-appointed judges to rule on the matter. If they decide against the former president, his lawyers have already promised to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Most people believe that the ruling from the Colorado court and others like it would set an unwelcome precedent.
Donald Trump's bid for another term as the President of the United States could potentially hit a snag as Colorado and several other states mull if a ban on insurrectionists taking office also applies to the presidency. https://t.co/c9K0nEIccU
— Black Enterprise (@blackenterprise) December 10, 2023
“If it was so important that the president be included, I come back to the question, Why not spell it out?” Justice Carlos Samour Jr. said, as reported by the Associated Press. “Why not include president and vice president in the way they spell out senator or representative?”
Overall, it appears that the pro-Trump camp is eager to preserve their candidate’s right to run for office, citing the Amendment’s silence on the matter as key evidence. For now, his fate ultimately hangs in the balance of the Colorado Supreme Court.