Attorneys for former President Trump have already announced they intend to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court the Colorado Supreme Court's 4-3 decision to declare Trump ineligible for the White House under the U.S. Constitution's insurrection clause and remove him from the state's presidential primary ballot.
"This specific provision is Amendment 14 Section 3, and it says, '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, who shall have … engaged in insurrection or rebellion,'" American Family Radio's Jenna Ellis cites. "This textually does not include the president of the United States."
She goes on to explain that under Section 5, the 14th Amendment specifically gives Congress the power to enforce the provisions of this article.
"So, we're basically in a violation of the separation of powers here, with a Supreme Court in the judicial branch in Colorado trying to enforce the provision of the 14th Amendment against an office that is not included in the text -- and not by legislation through Congress, but basically by judicial activism," Ellis summarizes.
Colorado's highest court overturned a ruling from a district court judge who claimed that Trump incited an insurrection for his role in the January 6, 2021 demonstrations at 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.
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed nationally to disqualify Trump under Section 3, which was designed to keep former Confederates from returning to government after the Civil War. But the Colorado court sided with the argument that it was nonsensical to imagine that the framers of the amendment would bar former Confederates from low-level offices but not the highest one in the land -- marking the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.
Gordon Klingenschmitt, a former Colorado state legislator who now heads the Pray In Jesus Name project, says the Colorado Supreme Court needs to be rebuked for giving credence to the Left's false narrative about January 6, 2021.
"They did this with complete bias; they did this with complete prejudice," Klingenschmitt asserts. "The fact that two lower courts had ruled the opposite way and this state Supreme Court had to reverse them in order to say that Trump should not be on the ballot -- that just shows that they're activists and that they need to be rebuked by the United States Supreme Court."
He urges Trump's lawyers to take "some kind of action" before January 4.
"January 5 is when they start to finalize the ballots that will be mailed out for the presidential primary coming up in March, so there is some urgency to the need for a quick review by the U.S. Supreme Court," the former lawmaker explains.
Whether the U.S. Supreme Court takes the case or not, he recognizes their decision either way could have implications in other states throughout the country.
The Colorado GOP has announced that it will move from a primary to a caucus system if the decision against Trump stands.
