Donald Trump - Colorado Disqualification from 2024 US Presidential ballot - US Supreme Court to take up Trump's appeal

Controversial: Politics & Govt Politics & Govt: In The News
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The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday barred former President Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s ballots for next year’s election due to his inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, reversing a lower court ruling.

But the state Supreme Court stayed its ruling from taking effect until Jan. 4, “subject to further appellate proceedings.”

The ruling is the first time a state court has agreed that Trump, who is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, should be disqualified from the 2024 election due to a U.S. constitutional provision barring people who have engaged in “insurrection” from federal office.

The Trump campaign immediately said it would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the decision.

If the ruling stands, Trump would be denied the opportunity to contest for Colorado’s 10 votes in the Electoral College, the entity that selects a president every four years.

Courts in Minnesota and Michigan have rejected similar suits challenging Trump’s placement on the presidential ballot. But the issue continues to be litigated in many states, including Michigan, where plaintiffs have appealed the loss of their suit.

That’ll spoil Trump’s Xmas … :047:

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Did Colorado go to Trump when he won? I don’t remember. Some of the States would be moot if they did this since Trump wouldn’t get them anyway. A swing State could make a difference.

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Clinton received 48.2% of the vote, carrying the state’s nine electoral votes. Trump received 43.3% of the vote, thus marking a Democratic margin of victory of 4.9%.

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At least 16 other states currently have pending legal challenges to Mr. Trump’s eligibility for office under the 14th Amendment, according to a database maintained by Lawfare, a nonpartisan site dedicated to national security issues. The lawsuits argue that he is barred because he engaged in an insurrection with his actions surrounding the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

Four of these lawsuits — in Michigan, Oregon, New Jersey and Wisconsin — have been filed in state courts. Eleven lawsuits — in Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, New York, New Mexico, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming — have been filed in federal district courts.

Cases in two of these states, Arizona and Michigan, were initially dismissed by a lower court but have been appealed. Another challenge has also been made in Maine.

Not all have the same chance of success … :neutral_face:

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The plot thickens. Interesting stuff. Thanks for posting it.

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Police in Colorado are investigating threats made against judges who ruled Donald Trump cannot be listed on the state’s presidential primary ballot.

Denver Police said they was providing extra patrols around the homes of justices in the city.

The Denver FBI office said it was assisting local police.

After news of the ruling came out, a slew of threats against the judges were posted online, according to Advance Democracy, a non-partisan research group that monitors pro-Trump networks.

Some of the posts included personal details, such as the addresses and phone numbers of the judges, the group said.

Threats to hang and shoot the judges were posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as the messaging service Telegram, the Trump-owned Truth Social network and several other fringe websites. Some have been taken down, while some were still live on Tuesday.

One user wrote: “If you live in Colorado, do what the founding fathers ACTUALLY would want. Grab your rifles and some rope.”

In a statement, Denver Police said it would “thoroughly investigate any reports of threats or harassment” but declined to provide further details, citing privacy concerns and the ongoing inquiries.

Daniel J Jones, Advance Democracy’s president, warned that he has observed “significant violent language and threats being made against the Colorado justices and others perceived to be behind Colorado’s Supreme Court ruling”.

“The normalisation of this type of violent rhetoric is cause for significant concern and it’s appropriate for law enforcement to respond with protective actions,” he added.

Gun Ownership by State 2023

There are 149,382 licensed guns in Colorado (45% of the population)

Rednecks, guns and incitement to riot - the Trump solution … :roll_eyes:

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Michigan’s Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by voters in the US state to disqualify Donald Trump from next year’s presidential primary.

Pro-democracy advocacy group Free Speech for People filed the lawsuit in September, and the group said in a statement that the ruling was a narrow and technical one that applied only to the state’s Republican primary.

Lower courts in Michigan rejected the case on procedural grounds and did not examine the question of whether the Capitol riot 6 January 2021 qualified as an insurrection under the law and whether Mr Trump played a part in it.

Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Welch explained that Michigan’s laws were different from Colorado’s.

The appellants “have identified no analogous provision in the Michigan Election Law that requires someone seeking the office of President of the United States to attest to their legal qualification to hold the office”, she wrote. (1)

(1) That seems somewhat remiss … :man_shrugging:

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Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said Mr Trump was not eligible because of his actions leading up to the US Capitol riot in 2021.

Maine now joins Colorado as the two states to ban Mr Trump from the ballot.

Both decisions are likely to face appeals in court.

The 34-page ruling says that Mr Trump, the Republican frontrunner, must be removed from the Maine ballot because of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution - which bans anyone from holding office that has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion”.

In her order, Mrs Bellows says that Mr Trump “over the course of several months and culminating on January 6, 2021, used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol”. She added that his “occasional requests that rioters be peaceful and support law enforcement do not immunize his actions”.

“I do not reach this conclusion lightly,” Mrs Bellows wrote in her decision. “I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”

I wasn’t aware of Maine’s review of Trump’s involvement in the storming of the Capitol so that decision’s a welcome surprise … :slightly_smiling_face:

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The US Supreme Court has said it will hear a historic case to determine if Donald Trump can run for president. The justices agreed to take up Mr Trump’s appeal against a decision by Colorado to remove him from the 2024 ballot in that state. The case will be heard in February and the ruling will apply nationwide.

The 14th Amendment of the US Constitution bans anyone who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding federal office, but the former president’s lawyers argue it does not apply to the president.

This is the first time the Supreme Court will consider how to interpret the clause.

The US Supreme Court has a conservative majority - with three justices appointed by Mr Trump when he was president. But they overwhelmingly ruled against him in his lawsuits challenging his defeat to Mr Biden in 2020.

The court on Friday agreed to take up the case in an expedited manner, with oral arguments scheduled for 8 February. Mr Trump’s legal team is due to file their opening brief by 18 January. The group arguing for Mr Trump’s disqualification must submit its argument by 31 January.

One way or another, then, justice will prevail … :thinking:

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The US supreme court will hear oral arguments on Thursday morning in the high-stakes case that will probably determine whether Donald Trump is eligible to run for president this year.

The case, Donald J Trump v Norma Anderson et al, came about after six Colorado voters filed a lawsuit last year alleging Trump was ineligible to run for president under a little-used provision of the constitution’s 14th amendment. The provision says that any member of Congress or officer of the United States who takes an oath to defend the constitution and then subsequently engages in insurrection is barred from holding office. The ban can only be overridden by a two-thirds vote by both chambers of Congress.

A decision upholding the Colorado supreme court’s ruling would not automatically remove Trump from the ballot across the country. While some states have rebuffed efforts to remove Trump from the primary ballot, a supreme court saying Trump can be disqualified would probably set off a flurry of fast challenges in state courts and other tribunals to disqualify him from the ballot in the general election.

There is no legal precedent for the case – the justices will be wrestling with the key issues in the case, including whether Trump committed insurrection on January 6 for the first time. The 14th amendment was enacted after the civil war to bar former Confederates from holding office and has never been used to bar a presidential candidate. In 2022, the amendment was used to remove a New Mexico county commissioner from office, the first time it had been used that way in a century.

The case marks the court’s most direct intervention in a presidential election since its controversial decision in Bush v Gore in 2000. Seeking to preserve its reputation as an apolitical body, the court is usually hesitant to get involved in heated political disputes, but the arrival of the Trump case makes the court’s intervention in the most controversial of political cases unavoidable. It comes as public confidence in the court continues to decline amid a series of ethics scandals and politically charged decisions.

6 of the 9 justices are known to favour Trump … is the outcome predictable?

A ruling will not come today and the justices have not said when they will decide.

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Misleading title! I got excited for a second. :wink:

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The USA version of a show trial.

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Summary

  1. The Supreme Court has heard arguments in a landmark legal case to decide whether Donald Trump can be on the ballot in November’s election
  2. The justices were sceptical of Colorado’s decision to disqualify the former president, and asked tough questions of the lawyer from the state
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Not looking good for disqualification by States to stand. Some justices have given hints that they won’t rule for disqualification by the States. Side note: Gorsuch ruled for disqualification of a Presidential candidate by a State in a different case. He’ll have to go against his own precedent to rule in favor of Trump. I’m predicting that he will.

There’s no deadline for the decision. It could go until the June recess, or beyond conceivably.

Trump disagrees with his legal team and the Justices that the Jan. 6 event was not an insurrection. Trump says that he thinks it was an insurrection.

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Trump’s lawyer admitted the Jan. 6 was a “criminal, shameful” riot in the Supreme Court hearing. He also said it was violent.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/donald-trumps-lawyer-admits-jan-6-was-a-criminal-shameful-riot/ar-BB1hZha1

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-68470315

US Supreme Court rules Trump can remain on presidential ballot

  • The US Supreme Court has struck down efforts by individual states to bar Donald Trump from running as a presidential candidate for November’s election
  • Justices unanimously overruled Colorado’s decision to disqualify Trump from the Republican primary ballot
  • Judges in the state had cited an anti-insurrection clause in the US Constitution to ban Trump; similar attempts have been made in Illinois and Maine
  • Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bans anyone who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from office
  • The Colorado ruling pointed to Trump’s actions around the 6 January attack on the Capitol by his supporters
  • But in their decision announced on Monday morning, justices ruled that only Congress has the power to enforce the provision, not states
  • Republican voters in Colorado and more than a dozen other states will go to the polls on Tuesday to pick the party’s presidential nominee

THat’s that. then.