In a split decision earlier this week, the Colorado Supreme Court decided that former President Donald Trump’s name should not be included on the state’s presidential ballot due to his alleged violation of the insurrection clause of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
Every American should be troubled by the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to remove President Trump from the ballot.
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) December 20, 2023
The state’s high court overturned a lower court’s determination that the amendment does not apply to the office of the presidency.
Although Tuesday’s controversial ruling appears to be headed to the United States Supreme Court on appeal, it nevertheless sparked similar efforts in a pair of other Democratic-leaning states eager to derail Trump’s bid for a second term in the White House.
The day after the Colorado ruling was announced, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows was reportedly redoubling her efforts to determine whether Trump’s name could be stripped from that state’s upcoming primary election ballots.
Bellows previously received a complaint similar to the one filed in Colorado, though she acknowledged that the onus was on the challengers to prove at a forthcoming State House hearing that the GOP front-runner should be disqualified from seeking re-election.
“The challengers have the burden of providing sufficient evidence to invalidate the petition,” she said last week. “At the hearing there will be an opportunity for both the challengers and the candidate to present oral testimony of witnesses as well as additional documentary evidence, and to make oral argument pertaining to the challenge in light of that evidence.”
Meanwhile in California, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis reached out to Secretary of State Shirley Weber with a more decisive opinion about Trump’s constitutional eligibility.
Echoing the accusations of many other anti-Trump leftists, Kounalakis wrote that her state “must stand on the right side of history” and outlined her case that the then-president’s actions in the aftermath of a disputed 2020 election amounted to the incitement of an insurrection.
She gushed over the California Supreme Court decision, claiming that it was “about honoring the rule of law in our country and protecting the fundamental pillars of our democracy.”
The lieutenant governor went on to suggest the ruling “can be the basis for a similar decision here in our state.”
