Former President Donald Trump suffered another setback in court late last week when Colorado District Judge Sarah Wallace rejected three attempts made by him and his Republican allies to dismiss a lawsuit. The suit seeks to prevent Trump from appearing on Colorado's 2024 presidential ballot citing the 14th Amendment's "insurrectionist ban."
This ruling is another obstacle for Trump who is beset by legal challenges to his potential candidacy, largely linked to his role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection. The ex-President still has a pending motion to dismiss the lawsuit in Colorado, but the case looks set to proceed to an unprecedented trial this month.
The 14th Amendment, added to the US Constitution after the Civil War, disqualifies officials who've pledged to uphold the Constitution but have engaged in insurrection or given aid or comfort to insurrectionists from holding future office. The process of enforcement of the ban isn’t clear in the Constitution and the provision has been invoked only twice since the 1800s.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal watchdog group, is responsible for the Colorado case. They filed the suit on behalf of six Republican and unaffiliated voters. The trial, presided over by Judge Wallace, kicks off on October 30. Wallace has the task of deciding several novel legal questions about the application of the 14th Amendment in relation to Trump.
According to a detailed 24-page ruling, Wallace dismissed several of Trump’s points that the case was procedurally flawed. A key matter in question, of whether Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold can block Trump based on the 14th Amendment, will be best answered at trial, she stated.
Wallace ruled against the Colorado GOP's argument that the party and not election officials had authority over candidate selection. She wrote, “If the Party, without any oversight, can choose its preferred candidate, then it could theoretically nominate anyone regardless of their age, citizenship, residency,” adding that such an interpretation would be absurd.
Drawing attention to a 2012 opinion of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, Wallace asserted that states can “exclude from the ballot candidates who are constitutionally prohibited from assuming office.” This statement rebutted Trump’s claim that state officials lack the authority to disqualify him based on federal constitutional considerations.
These court proceedings come despite Trump's insistence of his innocence concerning the January 6 incident and his dismissing of these lawsuits as an "absurd conspiracy theory" and "stretching the law beyond recognition." Despite the Colorado lawsuit and others like it presenting legal complexities, a diverse range of legal scholars are voicing support for the contention that Trump is disqualified under the "insurrectionist ban."
Moreover, the bipartisan House committee that probed the January 6 incident proposed last year that the 14th Amendment should bar Trump from future office. The Colorado challenge team disclosed in a recent court filing their wish to depose Trump before trial, a move opposed by Trump. A decision on this deposition from Judge Wallace is still forthcoming.
