Donald Trump's Rocky History With Colorado Leads to the U.S. Supreme Court

Donald Trump has always had a rocky relationship with Colorado. There was that spat between then-wife Ivana and then-girlfriend Marla Maples on the slopes of Aspen back in 1990. That snub when his bid to redevelop Union Station didn't pass muster. Trump's  subsequent plans to erect Denver's tallest buildings at 1770 Sherman Street fell flat, too.

Then came his pummeling at the 2016 Colorado Republican Party Convention, which Trump didn't bother attending, when delegates gave all 34 votes to Ted Cruz, who did. “The people of Colorado had their vote taken away from them by phony politicians,” Trump tweeted. “Biggest story in politics.”

The Colorado election system was "rigged," he said. "Crooked."

Trump expanded on the theme in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on April 14, 2016. “On Saturday, April 9, Colorado had an ‘election,’ without voters,” Trump wrote. “Delegates were chosen on behalf of a presidential nominee, yet the people of Colorado were not able to cast their ballots to say which nominee they preferred. ...Let us take inspiration from patriotic Colorado citizens who have banded together in protest. Let us make Colorado a rallying cry on behalf of all the forgotten people whose desperate pleas have for decades fallen on the deaf ears and closed eyes of our rulers in Washington, D.C. The political insiders have had their way for a long time. Let 2016 be remembered as the year the American people finally got theirs.”

And let 2024 be remembered as the year that Donald Trump got his, thanks to six patriotic Colorado citizens who filed suit in September, claiming that he was not eligible to be a candidate on this state's presidential primary ballot under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which stipulates that an "officer" of the U.S. government is barred from running for elected office if involved in an insurrection.

At 8 a.m. today, February 8, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Donald J. Trump, Petitioner, v. Norma Anderson, et al.

Norma Anderson is the 91-year-old, lifelong Republican and respected former legislator who's one of the six Colorado plaintiffs in the suit filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Three of the other plaintiffs are also Republicans; two are unaffiliated. None are the far-left "henchmen" or "Soros-funded Democrats" that Trump has labeled them.

In November, District Court Judge Sarah Wallace dismissed the suit, ruling that while Trump had indeed "incited" an insurrection on January 6, 2021, as president he did not qualify as an "officer" of the U.S.

The plaintiffs appealed — as did Trump — and on December 19, the Colorado Supreme Court overturned the Denver judge's decision: Not only did Trump incite the insurrection, but as president, he certainly qualified as an officer of the United States. "We do not reach these conclusions lightly," the seven justices noted. "We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us."

Trump appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which accepted the case last month and fast-tracked the hearing to today, since Super Tuesday is on March 5, and Colorado is one of fifteen states holding presidential primaries that day.

Trump's name is already on the Colorado ballot; it had to be printed and sent to registered voters overseas last month. But will any votes for Trump in Colorado be counted? That's up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

You can listen to the action live this morning. Trump won't be there, either; he's at Mar-a-Lago, where he plans to speak later today. Jonathan Mitchell will be representing the former president, while Jason Murray will be arguing the plaintiffs' case. This will be his first time appearing before the Supreme Court, but he clerked for both Justice Elena Kagan and Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Coloradan appointed to the court by Donald Trump.

In the meantime, you can listen to political and legal pundits all over TV. Or simply read Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, ratified by the states three years after the end of the Civil War:

“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof...."