They actually did it.
Just in time for Christmas, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that former President Donald Trump cannot put his name on the state ballot in the upcoming presidential election.
The court announced their ruling in a 4-3 decision that Trump is ineligible for the state’s ballot, citing the "insurrection" clause in the 14th Amendment used to bar actual Confederates from running for office after the end of the Civil War in 1868.
I’ve been following this case for months, pointing out in September that Democrats are terrified by actual "Democracy" and clinging to whatever desperate options they have left in the courts to stop the former president.
We see now why the left insists on calling the January 6th riot of Trump supporters on Capitol Hill an "insurrection." If they can engrain that concept into the public consciousness, they can try to stop him from even appearing on the ballot.
The Colorado State Supreme Court took the bait. Using the pious language of self-aggrandizing legal deities, the majority opinion announced to thousands of Trump supporters in Colorado that they would not be allowed to vote for him in the upcoming election.
“We do not reach these conclusions lightly. We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us,” the four court justices wrote in their majority opinion, citing “our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”
In other words: We do not trust our citizens to make a Democratic decision in November so we will prevent Democracy from taking place to save Democracy from Donald Trump.
Our country got a decision that was certainly historic, but not as the court intended. It is now one of the most partisan anti-democratic court decisions in history.
The court argued that Trump was guilty of insurrection, even though he had not been charged or convicted of insurrection. (Yes, even the Justice Department's special counsel did not charge the former president with insurrection.)
But that did not stop the four justices in Colorado from attempting to rig their state's election.
Without any serious legal case, the majority argument in the 213-page decision reads like a bad high school philosophy paper as they repeatedly cite dictionary definitions of the word “insurrection” to make their case.
They conveniently ignore the fact that a democratically elected Congress even acquitted Trump of his alleged crimes in January 2020 during an impeachment trial.
Sixteen years of Democrat leadership in Colorado gets you a pretty radical state Supreme Court of justices all appointed by Democrats.
Thankfully the three dissenters on the court demonstrated that some degree of legal sanity still exists in our neighboring blue state.
Colorado Supreme Court Justice Carlos Samour, appointed by former Democratic governor John Hickenlooper, reminded his colleagues of the American tradition of due process in the court system in his dissent.
“Even if we are convinced that a candidate committed horrible acts in the past — dare I say, engaged in insurrection — there must be procedural due process before we can declare that individual disqualified from holding public office,” he wrote.
“Procedural due process is one of the aspects of America’s democracy that sets this country apart.”
We can also take comfort in knowing there will be an appeal to the United States Supreme Court in time to allow Trump to appear on the ballot anyway.
Thankfully, we can expect the originalist majority in our nation’s highest court to side with Democracy over these four self-appointed “defenders of Democracy."
Their brazen attempt only helps President Donald Trump in the upcoming election. When the Supreme Court likely rules in favor of Democracy taking place in Colorado, this idea of keeping him off the ballot on a legal basis will finally be defeated.
It’s an early Christmas present for the former president as he will likely prevail. The anti-democratic effort against the president has already rallied his supporters — and supporters of common sense.
This November, let the people, not the courts decide whether Trump deserves a second term.
Charlie Spiering can be reached at: Charlie.Spiering@gmail.com
