The Colorado Supreme Court's decision, which only affects this western US state, could have a snowball effect. All eyes are now on the Supreme Court of the United States.
The Colorado Supreme Court declared Donald Trump ineligible for election on Tuesday, December 19, because of his actions during the attack on the Capitol, triggering a shockwave whose magnitude is still difficult to estimate in the turbulent American presidential election campaign.
By a majority of four out of seven justices, the Supreme Court of this western American state upheld the first instance decision and concluded that Donald Trump “committed rebellion on January 6, 2021 during the attack on the Capitol.”
Supreme Court decision awaited
All eyes are now on the conservative-dominated Supreme Court of the United States, where the former Republican president has announced he will appeal.
In theory, the decision requires Colorado election officials to remove Donald Trump's name from the ballot for that state's Republican primary on Super Tuesday, March 5, 2024.
However, the Colorado Supreme Court justices say they are “aware they are entering uncharted territory” and are also suspending their injunction until January 4, the deadline for validating ballots in the primary , if appealed to the United States by then state supreme court.
“If appealed to the Supreme Court before the expiration of this stay, it will remain in effect and the election official must continue to place President Trump’s name on the 2024 primary ballot until he receives an injunction or mandate from the Supreme Court,” it said Verdict.
Therefore, many commentators on American political life believe that Donald Trump's name should appear prominently on the ballot in Colorado in anticipation of a possible Supreme Court decision.
A snowball effect after Colorado?
If Donald Trump were actually excluded from the Colorado election, the impact on the race for the White House would likely be small. “Donald Trump lost Colorado by 13 percentage points in 2020 and does not need this state to win next year’s presidential election,” emphasizes the American agency Associated Press.
“But the danger for the former president is that more courts and election officials will follow Colorado’s lead and bar Donald Trump from must-win states,” AP continues.
There are about fifteen lawsuits underway in various states, including two in Minnesota and Michigan that have been rejected. Colorado courts are the first to declare Donald Trump unelectable.
Debate about the 14th Amendment
The historic indictment of the ex-president on August 1 at the federal level and then on August 14 by the state of Georgia (Southeast) for his allegedly unlawful attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election opened a legal debate about his Possibility of inadmissibility.
The anti-corruption citizens group Crew, which initiated the lawsuit in Colorado, invoked the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution to argue that Donald Trump is ineligible.
This amendment, passed in 1868 and then aimed at supporters of the Southern Confederacy defeated in the Civil War (1861-1865), excludes from all public responsibility anyone who took an oath to defend the Constitution and participated in acts of “rebellion.”
In her Nov. 17 ruling, Judge Sarah Wallace found that Donald Trump “acted with the specific intent of inciting political violence and directing it against the Capitol for the purpose of preventing the certification of the election” of Joe Biden .
On the other hand, she held that the 14th Amendment did not apply to the office of President of the United States, but admitted that there were doubts on this point. The Colorado Supreme Court therefore ruled and confirmed that the 14th Amendment could apply in the case of Donald Trump.
Francois Blanchard from AFP