A Colorado court decision prohibiting Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot is more symbolic than substantive. If it stands, it will have no impact on the Electoral College count and will not address the underlying issues of a Trump candidacy.
Petitioners had sought to keep Trump off the ballot under the “insurrection clause” of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That sweeping amendment, adopted in 1868 in the wake of the Civil War, includes a provision reading, “No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath … as an officer of the United States … shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the provision applies to Trump because of his actions before and during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The ruling does not apply to other states and is placed on hold until Jan. 4, pending an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court could decide the matter for the nation.
From a practical standpoint, the ruling has little impact. Joe Biden defeated Trump by 14 points in Colorado in 2020, capturing the state’s nine electoral votes en route to winning the presidency. Democratic candidates have won the past four presidential elections in Colorado, each by at least five points. If Trump is the Republican nominee for the presidency, he is not going to win Colorado.
The same would hold true if Trump were kept off the ballot in Washington or Oregon or any other deep blue state.
Yet, the issue is troubling. During these contentious times, it is easy to foresee opponents on either side of the spectrum seeking redress from the courts to keep a political candidate off the ballot. Specious claims of wrongdoing backed by a partisan court can only increase the dissonance that has infected our democracy.
Claims against Trump, however, are not specious. In an unsigned decision, the Colorado court wrote, “President Trump did not merely incite the insurrection. Even when the siege on the Capitol was fully underway, he continued to support it by repeatedly demanding that Vice President (Mike) Pence refuse to perform his constitutional duty and by calling Senators to persuade them to stop the counting of electoral votes. These actions constituted overt, voluntary, and direct participation in the insurrection.”
The opinion adds, “We conclude that the foregoing evidence, the great bulk of which was undisputed at trial, established that President Trump engaged in insurrection.”
Trump has been indicted on federal charges and on state charges in Georgia relating to his efforts to overturn the results of a lawful election. The charges include allegations of a convoluted scheme to install false electors to the Electoral College.
Trump has clearly demonstrated that he is a threat to the nation. Whether or not he fomented an insurrection in January 2021, it is well documented that he abdicated his duties as president in failing to halt the attack on the Capitol. Whether or not he pursued effective policies as president, it is well documented that he has little respect for the U.S. Constitution. He embraces authoritarianism that should be anathema to all Americans.
But keeping Trump off the ballot in Colorado or any state will do little to quell the anti-democratic tendencies embraced by his most ardent supporters, and it will do little to move the nation forward. Only a thorough rebuke at the polls can do that.
