Colorado's top court rules Trump ineligible to run for presidency, removes him from state's ballot

The Colorado Supreme Court declared former U.S. president Donald Trump ineligible for the presidency Tuesday under the U.S. Constitution's insurrection clause, and removed him from the state's presidential primary ballot.

The move set up a likely showdown in the country's highest court to decide whether the front-runner for the GOP nomination can remain in the race. Trump's attorneys had promised to appeal any disqualification immediately to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has the final say about constitutional matters.

The decision from a court whose justices were all appointed by Democratic governors marks the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.

"A majority of the court holds that Trump is disqualified from holding the office of president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment," the court wrote in its 4-3 decision.

Dozens of lawsuits have been filed nationally to disqualify Trump under Section 3, which was designed to keep former Confederates from returning to government after the Civil War. It bars from office anyone who swore an oath to "support" the Constitution and then "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against it, and has been used only a handful of times since the decade after the Civil War. 

The Colorado case is the first where the plaintiffs succeeded.

The court stayed its decision until Jan. 4, or until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the case.

"We do not reach these conclusions lightly," wrote the court's majority. "We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favour, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach."

Chris Galdieri, a politics professor at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, told CBC's Canada Tonight on Tuesday that the Supreme Court, one-third of which was appointed by Trump during his term, will likely be "very reluctant" to rule that someone cannot appear on a ballot, and will probably find a way to maintain his eligibility.

"I think we are likely to see this come up again," Galdieri said. "Until the Supreme Court rules, we're in this sort of limbo where you could have a situation where Trump is eligible to run in some states but not in others."

Colorado's highest court overturned a ruling from a district court judge who found that Trump incited an insurrection for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, but said he could not be barred from the ballot because it was unclear that the provision was intended to cover the presidency.

The provision also says offices covered include senator, representative, electors of the president and vice-president, and all others "under the United States," but doesn't name the presidency.

The state's highest court disagreed, siding with attorneys for six Colorado Republican and unaffiliated voters who argued that it was nonsensical to imagine the framers of the amendment, fearful of former Confederates returning to power, would bar them from low-level offices but not the highest one in the land.

Trump has called the lawsuits "election interference," and his lawyers have contended that Trump never "engaged in insurrection" and was simply exercising his free speech rights on Jan. 6 to warn about election results he did not believe were legitimate.