US Presidential Election 2024: Trump is ineligible to run in Colorado, what now?

All parents tell their children at one time or another: “Your actions have consequences.” The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that former President Donald Trump’s undemocratic maneuvers to deny Joe Biden his victory in the 2020 presidential election amounted to incitement to insurrection. And that according to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, he could not run again for the votes of the people.

Progress of the appeal. On November 17, Colorado District Judge Sarah Wallace, in a lengthy 102-page decision, strongly condemned Trump’s conduct as he “actively incited the ire of his extremist supporters” and “acted with the specific intent to incite political violence and direct it against the Capitol” during the storming of 6 January 2021. But she refused to disqualify Trump from running in his party’s primary in Colorado. An appeal was filed to the Colorado Supreme Court.

By a majority of four out of seven justices on Tuesday, he affirmed Justice Wallace’s decision but held that the 14th Amendment exception does apply to the president. “President Trump incited and encouraged the use of violence and lawless acts to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power,” the judges wrote in their 134-page decision. “We did not reach these conclusions lightly,” they write, worried about the cataclysm they would cause. We recognize the scale and significance of the problems facing us. We also recognize our sacred duty to enforce the law without fear or favor and without being influenced by public reaction to the decisions the law requires of us.”

Colorado or not, does the state matter? No. Of course, the state of the great plains and mountains of the American West is one of the most Democratic in the country and is at the forefront of the environmental fight revered by Trump and the most reactive of his voters. However, the lawsuits were brought by Republican voters and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a federal NGO in Washington, with a notable bipartisan balance. Similar cases have been filed in other states (Michigan, Minnesota) as wounds from the events that rocked the United States between November 2020 and January 2021 remain raw.

Time. The Colorado Supreme Court’s decision effectively eliminates Trump from the state’s Republican primary scheduled for March 5. However, Colorado judges suspended their decision until January 4 so that the Republican leader could appeal to the US Supreme Court. If he doesn’t meet quickly or needs time to make a decision, Trump could send his delegates to Super Tuesday on March 5.

The American Supreme Court is forced to make a decision. Now begins a battle of disputes over the sacred American Constitution. We are talking about the 14th Amendment, or more precisely its 3rd Article and the famous “Disqualification Clause.” The 14th Amendment, ratified after the Civil War (1861-1865), provides that American government employees and officers are prohibited from holding future federal office if they “engage in insurrection.” The Constitution expressly prohibits rebels from being elected to Congress or even from serving as presidential electors in the United States—famous delegates—but it says nothing about presidents. Judge Wallace, in her November 17 decision, also found that the occupant of the Oval Office was not covered by the 14th Amendment. Prohibition has only been enforced twice in U.S. history, and always retroactively.

An institution that has become ultra-conservative. Everyone knows that the US Supreme Court will have the final say. But which one? Six of the nine justices are conservatives who, to everyone’s surprise, struck down abortion rights with the stroke of a pen in June 2022, even though most Americans supported them. One of the harshest of these “wise men,” Justice Clarence Thomas, wants to review the same-sex marriage law and the law regarding women’s access to contraception. How will they read the 14th Amendment? In an article published by CNN, Nicole Hemmer, a historian and professor at Vanderbilt University, says that “over the past several decades, the institution has been an ally in efforts to bring democratic governance back to the UNITED STATES.” And cite Al Gore’s defeat in the 2000 presidential election or the Citizens United ruling, which opened the floodgates to unregulated corporate spending during elections.

What calendar? D-Day is only November 5th, but time is running out. The complex American electoral system relies on major party candidates running domestically in state-by-state primary elections. First to enter the dance, Iowa will decide on Jan. 15, less than four weeks later, followed by South Carolina on Feb. 3. Super Tuesday is scheduled for March 5th. On this day, Republicans and Democrats from fifteen states, including powerful Texas, California and Colorado, are called to vote. Iowa and Carolina will give momentum, Super Tuesday – “la”.

These campaign meetings will be accompanied by subpoenas in numerous lawsuits, including criminal ones, brought against Trump. The most dangerous of them takes place in Georgia, where a limitless tycoon faces prison. But its date has not been set.