Judge Sarah B.Wallace ruled against a group of six Republican and unaffiliated voters in Colorado, represented by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), who filed a lawsuit in September that sought to bar Trump from the state's Republican primary ballot under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which disqualifies people from running for office if they've engaged in "insurrection or rebellion" against the U.S. The petitioners claimed his activity surrounding Jan. 6 invoked this "insurrectionist ban."
In a 102-page opinion, Wallace cited "competing interpretations" of the constitutional clause, and a "lack of definitive guidance in the text or historical sources" in order to rule its application to Trump.
"To be clear, part of the Court's decision is its reluctance to embrace an interpretation which would disqualify a presidential candidate without a clear, unmistakable indication that such is the intent of Section Three… Here, the record demonstrates an appreciable amount of tension between the competing interpretations, and a lack of definitive guidance in the text or historical sources. As a result, the [lower] Court holds that Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment does not apply to Trump," Wallace wrote. [...]
The Trump team celebrated the Colorado judge's rejection of CREW's challenge to keep Trump off the GOP ballot in 2024 by maintaining that the efforts to invoke Section 3 of the 14th Amendment against Trump were election interference-- noting that voters' "Constitutional right" to electing Trump was preserved.
The watchdog non-profit organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington took issue with that part of the ruling.
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From CREW's opening brief filed yesterday in Colorado Supreme Court to appeal Judge Wallace's ruling.
Because the district court found that Trump engaged in insurrection [finding of fact] after taking the Presidential oath of office, it should have concluded that he is disqualified [determination of law] from office and ordered the Secretary of State to exclude him from the Colorado presidential primary ballot.
Instead, the district court ordered the Secretary to place Trump on the ballot. The court held that Section 3’s disqualification rule does not apply to insurrectionist former Presidents, nor to any insurrectionists running for President—in effect, that this office alone is above the law. To reach this result, the district court had to find, counterintuitively, that the President is not an “officer of the United States,” that the Presidency is not an “office under the United States,” and that the Presidential oath to “preserve, protect, and defend” the Constitution is not an oath to support the Constitution. This holding was reversible error. The Constitution itself, historical context, and common sense, all make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s disqualification clause extends to the President and the Presidency.
The Constitution explicitly tells us, over and over, that the Presidency is an “office.” The natural meaning of “officer of the United States” is anyone who holds a federal “office.” And the natural reading of “oath to support the Constitution” includes the stronger Presidential oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.” The historical record when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified also reveals an overwhelming consensus that Section 3 disqualified rebels like Jefferson Davis* from the Presidency, and that the President was an “officer of the United States.” As for common sense, there would be no reason to allow Presidents who lead an insurrection to serve again while preventing low-level government workers who act as foot soldiers from doing so. And it would defy logic to prohibit insurrectionists from holding every federal or state office except for the highest and most powerful in the land. Section 3 does not say that. The Framers did not intend that. Trump is disqualified from holding office again.
Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment provides: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Based on a thorough review of the evidence and assessments of witness credibility, the district court found that the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol was an insurrection against the Constitution and that Trump engaged in that insurrection.
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In the spirit of reporting the STAKES rather than the horserace, the Arizona Eagletarian believes voters will decide to maintain democratic rule rather than enable Trump's brand of "strongman" authoritarian dictatorship.
When Trump declares his intent to TERMINATE all or part of the US Constitution, believe him.
Such a declaration is fully in accord with the inflammatory rhetoric he uses in his campaign to return to power in the 2024 election. The fact check below comes from Snopes.com
Follow and regularly check in with the Arizona Eagletarian to stay up on the STAKES for America in the 2024 presidential election.
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