Trumped: Supreme Court Overturns Colorado Decision on Presidential Primary Eligibility

It was fun while it lasted. Thirty-six hours before the last ballots can be cast in Colorado's presidential primary, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling overturning the Colorado Supreme Court's decision that former president Donald Trump was not eligible to be on Colorado's ballot.

For a while there, all eyes had been on Colorado, where six voters — four Republican, two unaffiliated and zero "Soros-funded Democrats," as Trump had suggested — had dared to file a lawsuit challenging Trump's eligibility to be a presidential candidate. In the lead was no less a rebel than Norma Anderson, the 91-year-old lifelong Republican and former state lawmaker who'd served as both the House majority leader and Senate majority leader.

“Donald Trump tried to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election,” charged the lawsuit, filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington on September 6 in Denver District Court. “His efforts culminated on January 6, 2021, when he incited, exacerbated, and otherwise engaged in a violent insurrection at the United States Capitol by a mob who believed they were following his orders, and refused to protect the Capitol or call off the mob for nearly three hours as the attack unfolded.”

As a result, the suit argued, Trump had violated the 14th Amendment, ratified by the states and added  to the U.S. Constitution in 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War and eight before the Colorado territory joined the Union. Section 3 of that amendment reads:

“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...."

In a decision handed down in November, a Denver District Court judge determined that while Trump had indeed incited an insurrection, the president did not qualify as "an officer of the United States." Both sides appealed, and on December 19, the Colorado Supreme Court dropped a bombshell: While it concurred with the district court's depiction of Trump's actions on January 6, it disagreed with that judge's interpretation of "officer of the court." The presidency did indeed fall under Section 3, the judges ruled, and so Trump was barred from appearing on the state's 2024 presidential primary ballot on March 5.

Pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, of course, should the Colorado decision be appealed.

In the meantime, Trump's name would be on the Colorado ballot. If the Supreme Court took the case and ruled in Colorado's favor, any votes for Trump on the March 5 ballot would not be counted.

Now they will be — not that Trump has ever been a particular favorite in this state. Since the filing of the lawsuit, he's renewed his criticism of Colorado, the state he accused of having a "crooked" and "rigged" system back in 2016, when Ted Cruz won all of the votes during the state Republican Party Convention.

"Big win for America," Trump says.

But not a complete win for Trump. Although the Supreme Court ruling allows him to remain a candidate in Colorado, its decision was made on the basis of process, not on the former president's behavior. The decision of eligibility belongs to Congress, they say, not a "patchwork" of state decisions.

The justices did not weigh in on Trump's actions on January 6, 2021, after he lost the last presidential election. They'll have a chance to deal with that much stickier issue when they release their decision on Trump's presidential immunity case in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, Trump's fate resides in the court of public opinion.

Colorado can still have its say tomorrow.