An appeals court in Colorado on Tuesday ruled Donald Trump cannot appear on the state’s presidential primary ballot because his actions surrounding the 2021 attack on the Capitol render him ineligible.
“A majority of the court holds that President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the court wrote.
“Because he is disqualified, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Colorado Secretary of State to list him as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot.”
Donald Trump’s White House campaign vowed it would appeal the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling, with a spokesman calling the decision “completely flawed.”
“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.
The ruling is on hold pending appeal until January 4.
The judgment from the Colorado Supreme Court comes after a group of voters challenged an earlier ruling that as a candidate for the presidency, Trump’s clear involvement in January 6 did not preclude his running again.
That ruling hinged on the interpretation of the 14th Amendment to the US constitution that bars someone from holding “any office… under the United States” if they engaged in insurrection after taking an oath as “an officer of the United States” to support the Constitution.
But the amendment cannot apply to Trump, the lower court said, because the presidency is left out of the list of federal elected positions affected.
A spokesman for Trump called the Colorado ruling “undemocratic” and pledged to take the case to the US Supreme Court.
