Colorado supreme court disqualifies Trump from state’s 2024 ballot

The Colorado supreme court on Tuesday declared Donald Trump ineligible for the White House under the US 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 makes Trump the first presidential candidate in US history to be deemed ineligible for the White House under a rarely used provision that bars elected officials from holding office if they have engaged in “insurrection or rebellion”.

“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.

The decision is a victory for advocacy groups and anti-Trump voters who have mounted several similar legal challenges to the former president’s candidacy under section 3 of the 14th amendment, which was enacted after the American civil war.

The ruling applies only to the state’s 5 March Republican primary, but its conclusion would likely also affect Trump’s status for the 5 November general election. Nonpartisan US election forecasters view Colorado as safely Democratic, meaning that Joe Biden will likely carry the state regardless of Trump’s fate.

Colorado’s highest court overturned a ruling from a district court judge who found that the Trump incited an insurrection for his role in the January 6 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 4 January or until the US supreme court rules on the case.

The case was brought by a group of Colorado voters, aided by the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, who argued that Trump should be disqualified for inciting his supporters to attack the Capitol in a failed attempt to obstruct the transfer of presidential power to Biden after the 2020 election.

Advocates have hoped to use the case to boost a wider disqualification effort and potentially put the issue before the US supreme court.

Trump’s attorneys had promised to appeal any disqualification immediately to the US supreme court, which has the final say about constitutional matters.

Reuters contributed to this report