September 06, 2023 10:47 AM UTC

Lawsuit Filed To Keep Traitor Trump Off Colorado's Ballot

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

National legal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington today announced a lawsuit seeking to compel Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold to remove Donald Trump from the list of eligible candidates for President in our state “based on his disqualification from public office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.”

Having disqualified himself from public office by violating Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, Donald Trump must be removed from the ballot, according to a lawsuit filed today by six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters including former state, federal and local officials, represented by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the firms Tierney Lawrence Stiles LLC, KBN Law, LLC and Olson Grimsley Kawanabe Hinchcliff & Murray LLC.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, also known as the Disqualification Clause, bars any person from holding federal or state office who took an “oath…to support the Constitution of the United States” and then has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump stood before the nation and took an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” After losing the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump violated that oath by recruiting, inciting and encouraging a violent mob that attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021 in a futile attempt to remain in office…

“As a longtime Republican who voted for him, I believe Donald Trump disqualified himself from running in 2024 by spreading lies, vilifying election workers, and fomenting an attack on the Capitol,” said conservative columnist for the Denver Post and Republican activist Krista Kafer. “Those who by force and by falsehood subvert democracy are unfit to participate in it. That’s why I am part of this lawsuit to prevent an insurrectionist from appearing on Colorado’s ballot.”

The case is laid out in a 100-page petition filing you can read here. The summary argument is that Trump, having engaged in insurrection on January 6th, 2021, is constitutionally disqualified from running for office, and Colorado’s Secretary of State therefore has the “power and duty” to remove Trump from state’s presidential primary ballot. Secretary of State Griswold is the respondent in the case along with Trump, which may be the first and last time you’ll ever see them even nominally on the same side.

This isn’t the only case where the 14th Amendment has been invoked since January 6th, 2021 in an attempt to judicially end political careers, and though cases against higher profile figures haven’t fared as well a New Mexico county commissioner was successfully thrown off the ballot last year for his role in the insurrection. With the Colorado Republican Party controlled by MAGA-diehard election deniers, the Republicans who signed up to front this lawsuit like Denver Post columnist Krista Kafer are taking a commendably brave stand against their own.

The political opposing argument to this lawsuit is that Colorado is in absolutely no danger of flipping to Trump in 2024 after having been trounced here in the last two presidential elections, and indeed Colorado voters will be highly motivated to turn out in 2024 to reject Trump in the event he wins the Republican nomination. Whether they realize it or not–those in charge generally speaking do not–Republicans in Colorado would benefit greatly from not having to share the ballot with Trump next year. A court ruling disqualifying Trump, as satisfying and even legally justified idea as that may be, lacks the unquestionable finality of a landslide at the polls.

Then again, who are we kidding? Trump doesn’t respect election outcomes either.

For that reason alone, maybe a courtroom is where Trump’s fate belongs.