Colo. judge rejects Trump’s bid to toss lawsuit aimed at keeping him off 2024 ballot

A Colorado judge on Wednesday denied the latest attempt by former President Donald Trump to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to remove him from the state’s 2024 ballot because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

The decision comes just days before a trial on Trump’s eligibility for the ballot is expected to begin.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of six voters in Denver district court last month, says Trump should be disqualified from running in future elections under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which states no person shall hold any office if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” after having taken an oath to support the Constitution. It argues that Trump violated his oath as president through his connection to the Capitol attack.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and several law firms filed the lawsuit on behalf of the six voters — four Republicans and two unaffiliated.

In a 24-page ruling, Colorado District Judge Sarah Wallace pushed back on Trump’s argument that Congress, not courts, should handle questions related to his ballot eligibility. She also sided against Trump’s claim that state election officials lack the power to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

Wallace noted that that clause “clearly gives Congress the ability to remove a constitutional disability should a person be disqualified” under the provision, but “it says nothing regarding what government body would adjudicate or determine such disability in the first instance.”

“The Court notes, however, it would be strange for Congress to be the only entity that is empowered to determine the disability and then also the entity that is empowered to remove it,” Wallace wrote.

Wallace also wrote that the court’s ruling “holds that states can, and have, applied Section 3 pursuant to state statutes without federal enforcement legislation.”