What the Colorado ruling means for Donald Trump
A landmark ruling in Colorado on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) found Donald Trump ineligible to hold office under the US Constitution’s insurrection clause because he incited a riot on January 6 – and the justices voted to remove him from the state’s ballot in next year’s primary race.
While it sounds like a potential dagger to the former president’s 2024 election hopes, it is unlikely the Colorado Supreme Court will do much to hinder the Republican frontrunner.
Former US president Donald Trump at the campaign rally in New Hampshire on Saturday. AP
Mr Trump’s campaign has already vowed to appeal the decision to the US Supreme Court, whose 6-3 conservative majority includes three Trump appointees.
It will set up a showdown in America’s highest court to decide whether Mr Trump can stay in the race for the GOP nomination.
While it is unlikely the country’s highest court will uphold the ruling, even if it does, it would only impact Mr Trump’s election chances if high-stakes states used it as a blueprint to follow suit.
Mr Trump has a strong poll lead over Joe Biden in many of the vital swing states, including Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania.
The risk in Colorado itself is low for Mr Trump, 77, given he lost by 13 percentage points in 2020 and does not need the state to win next year’s election.
The danger lies in whether more courts and election officials could follow the state’s lead and exclude Mr Trump from the ballot in must-win states.
Dozens of similar lawsuits filed across the country have raised the same argument, though several have already been dismissed by state courts, such as in Minnesota.
Derek Muller, a Notre Dame law professor who has closely followed the Section 3 cases, said the ruling is “a major threat to Trump’s candidacy” and could “embolden other state courts or secretaries to act now that the bandage has been ripped off”.
Given how Mr Trump’s criminal indictments have so far only increased support for the former president, who has claimed he is being unfairly targeted, it is likely this ruling will bolster support from his fanbase.
Mr Trump’s campaign has already pointed to the fact that the Colorado Supreme Court’s justices were all appointed by Democratic governors.
Also, both groups who have brought the legal challenges are financed by liberal donors who support Mr Biden.
While Mr Trump’s Republican rivals could use this as an opportunity to claim the frontrunner is too much of a liability to be the GOP nominee, they have already started to fall in line behind Mr Trump.
On Tuesday, Vivek Ramaswamy volunteered to pull his name off Colorado’s March 5 Republican primary ballot in protest.
The Telegraph London
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