Colorado Supreme Court to take up appeals in Trump ballot case

The Colorado Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear appeals related to a judge’s ruling against an effort to keep former President Donald Trump off the state’s ballot in 2024.

The appeals were filed by both Trump and the Colorado voters arguing he is ineligible to hold office. Trump took issue with the state judge’s finding that he “engaged in insurrection,” while the voters disagreed with the ruling that the constitutional clause about ineligibility does not apply to the presidency.

State Judge Sarah B. Wallace last week dismissed a legal challenge brought by a group of Colorado voters represented by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which argued Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his conduct surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, making him ineligible for office.

In her ruling Friday, Wallace found that Trump “engaged in insurrection” but said the Constitution’s ban on insurrectionists’ holding office did not apply to Trump because the clause in question explicitly lists all federal elected positions except the presidency.

Sean Grimsley, an attorney for the group of voters who filed the legal challenge, welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to take up the appeal.

“We look forward to presenting arguments on the one legal question at issue — that an insurrectionist former president can and must be disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment,” Grimsley said in a statement.

Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, said the judge had overstepped.

“The district judge rightly rejected the far-left’s efforts to keep President Trump off the ballot, but she then went out of her way to wrongly criticize the President. We’ve asked the Colorado Supreme Court to strike her wrong-headed speculation, because it goes far beyond her jurisdiction,” Cheung said in statement.

Oral arguments before the Supreme Court are scheduled for Dec. 6 in Denver, a month before Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold must certify ballots for the state’s March 5 primary.

Courts in Minnesota and Michigan have recently rejected similar legal efforts to disqualify Trump from running for president in those states. Petitioners in Michigan have filed an appeal with the state’s Supreme Court.