NOW ONLY 49 MORE STATES TO GO!
BUT IF TRUMPER-HUMPERS ELECT JOJO, BIDEN WILL PROBABLY PARDON TRUMP FOR ATTEMPTING A COUP!
WE CAN'T FIX AMERICA UNTIL WE STOP ELECTING WHITE-COLLAR CRIMINALS ON THE TAKE TO THE PRESIDENCY
Colorado Supreme Court, in landmark ruling, bans Trump from state’s ballot under insurrection clause
DENVER (AP) — A divided Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday declared former President Donald Trump ineligible for the White House under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause and removed him from the state’s presidential primary ballot, setting up a likely showdown in the nation’s highest court to decide whether the front-runner for the GOP nomination can remain in the race.
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.
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 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 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 favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”
Trump’s attorneys had promised to appeal any disqualification immediately to the nation's highest court, which has the final say about constitutional matters.
"The Colorado Supreme Court issued a completely flawed decision tonight and we will swiftly file an appeal to the United States Supreme Court and a concurrent request for a stay of this deeply undemocratic decision,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement Tuesday night.
Trump lost Colorado by 13 percentage points in 2020 and doesn’t need the state to win next year’s presidential election. But the danger for the former president is that more courts and election officials will follow Colorado’s lead and exclude Trump from must-win states.
Colorado officials say the issue must be settled by Jan. 5, the deadline for the state to print its presidential primary ballots.
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. After a weeklong hearing in November, District Judge Sarah B. Wallace found that Trump indeed had “engaged in insurrection” by inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and her ruling that kept him on the ballot was a fairly technical one.
Trump’s attorneys convinced Wallace that, because the language in Section 3 refers to “officers of the United States” who take an oath to “support” the Constitution, it must not apply to the president, who is not included as an “officer of the United States” elsewhere in the document and whose oath is to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution.
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 didn’t agree, 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.
“You’d be saying a rebel who took up arms against the government couldn’t be a county sheriff, but could be the president,” attorney Jason Murray said in arguments before the court in early December.
Trump’s attorneys argued unsuccessfully that the writers of the amendment expected the Electoral College to prevent former insurrectionists from becoming president.
They also had urged the Colorado high court to reverse Wallace’s ruling that Trump incited the Jan. 6 attack. His lawyers argued the then-president had simply been using his free speech rights and hadn’t called for violence. Trump attorney Scott Gessler also argued the attack was more of a “riot” than an insurrection.
That met skepticism from several of the justices.
“Why isn’t it enough that a violent mob breached the Capitol when Congress was performing a core constitutional function?” Justice William W. Hood III said during the Dec. 6 arguments. “In some ways, that seems like a poster child for insurrection.”
In the ruling issued Tuesday, the court's majority dismissed the arguments that Trump wasn’t responsible for his supporters’ violent attack, which was intended to halt Congress' certification of the presidential vote: “President Trump then gave a speech in which he literally exhorted his supporters to fight at the Capitol,” they wrote.
Colorado Supreme Court Justices Richard L. Gabriel, Melissa Hart, William W. Hood III and Monica Márquez ruled for the petitioners. Chief Justice Brian D. Boatright dissented, arguing the constitutional questions were too complex to be solved in a state hearing. Justices Maria E. Berkenkotter and Carlos Samour also dissented.
“Our government cannot deprive someone of the right to hold public office without due process of law,” Samour wrote in his dissent. “Even if we are convinced that a candidate committed horrible acts in the past — dare I say, engaged in insurrection — there must be procedural due process before we can declare that individual disqualified from holding public office.”
The Colorado ruling stands in contrast with the Minnesota Supreme Court, which last month decided that the state party can put anyone it wants on its primary ballot. It dismissed a Section 3 lawsuit but said the plaintiffs could try again during the general election.
In another 14th Amendment case, a Michigan judge ruled that Congress, not the judiciary, should decide whether Trump can stay on the ballot. That ruling is being appealed.
The liberal group behind those cases, Free Speech For People, also filed another lawsuit in Oregon seeking to bounce Trump from the ballot there. The Colorado case was filed by another liberal group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Both groups are financed by liberal donors who also support President Joe Biden. Trump has blamed the president for the lawsuits against him, even though Biden has no role in them, saying his rival is “defacing the constitution” to try to end his campaign.
Half of Voters Say Trump’s Guilty of Trying to Overturn 2020 Election - But 21% of Mail-In Voters Confess to Fraud
Nearly half of voters say former President Donald Trump is guilty of attempting to overturn the 2020 election and, if found guilty, should go to prison – but, one in five who voted by mail actually admit to have committed voter fraud, new national surveys reveal.
Fully 47% of U.S. likely voters believe Trump is guilty of crimes associated with an alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election, results of a Rasmussen/Heartland Institute survey released this week show. And, if found guilty, 44% think he should be sent to prison.
At the heart of the issue is Trump’s public insistence that voter fraud cost him the 2020 presidential election, which Democrats’ claim is proof that he criminally incited the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
Trump is scheduled to stand trial in March of next year regarding Democrats’ allegations, in a case prosecuted by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Seventy-two percent (72%) of Democrats say they think Trump is guilty of crimes in the case, as do 20% of Republicans and 45% of voters not affiliated with either major party.
But, results of a separate Rasmussen/Heartland Institute survey released this week suggest that there was, indeed, significant voter fraud that impacted the 2020 election.
Thirty percent (30%) of those surveyed said they voted by absentee or mail-in ballot in the 2020 election. Of those, the following types of voter fraud were reported:
- 21% say they filled out a ballot, in part or in full, on behalf of a friend or family member.
- 19% say a friend or family member filled out their ballot, in part or in full, on their behalf.
- 17% say that they cast a ballot in a state where they were no longer a permanent resident.
- 17% say they signed a ballot or ballot envelope on behalf of a friend or family member, with or without their permission.
All of these practices are illegal, according to Heartland Institute officials.
Curiously, the survey found that 8% say that a friend, family member, or organization, such as a political party, offered to pay or reward them for voting in the 2020 - but, didn't ask if they accepted the bribe.
More Biden voters (36%) than Trump voters (23%) say they voted by absentee or mail-in ballot in the 2020 election.
“The results of this survey are nothing short of stunning,” Heartland Director of the Socialism Research Center Justin Haskins said, commenting on the grave implication of the findings:
“For the past three years, Americans have repeatedly been told that the 2020 election was the most secure in history. But if this poll’s findings are reflective of reality, the exact opposite is true.
“This conclusion isn’t based on conspiracy theories or suspect evidence, but rather from the responses made directly by the voters themselves.”
“If we needed any more evidence of the political left’s troubling descent into authoritarianism, this poll provides it in spades," Heartland Research Editor and Fellow Jack McPherrin added, noting the dire consequences of pre-judging and falsely convicting Trump:
"The number of Americans – especially Democrats – who already presume Trump’s guilt is already highly concerning.
“And, if he’s found guilty, more than three-quarters of Democrats believe he should be banned from public office, with approximately one-fifth opting to jail him for life, put him permanently in exile, or execute him."
Colorado Supreme Court Disqualifies Trump from 2024 Ballot
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in a 4-3 opinion that the Constitution’s “Insurrection Clause” prohibits former President Donald Trump from appearing on the ballot for the presidency in 2024.
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