Things are getting serious in the Rocky Mountain state. A Colorado judge rejected Trump’s plea to dismiss a lawsuit that would keep him off the 2024 presidential ballot in the state.
The lawsuit claims that Trump incited the January 6th Capital attack to prevent Joe Biden from being confirmed as the winner of the 2020 presidential elections. According to the plaintiffs, that support disqualifies Trump from being on the ballot due to the “insurrection” clause in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
The lawsuit was filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, also known as the Disqualification Clause, bars any person from holding federal or state office who took an “oath…to support the Constitution of the United States” and then has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,” the group wrote.
According to CREW, Trump violated that oath by inciting the mob on the Capital building on January 6th, 2021. The trial is set to begin this month.
“If the very fabric of our democracy is to hold, we must ensure that the Constitution is enforced and the same people who attacked our democratic system not be put in charge of it,” CREW President Noah Bookbinder said. “We aren’t bringing this case to make a point, we’re bringing it because it is necessary to defend our republic both today and in the future. While it is unprecedented to bring this type of case against a former president, January 6th was an unprecedented attack that is exactly the kind of event the framers of the 14th Amendment wanted to build protections in case of. You don’t break the glass unless there’s an emergency.”
