OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump has scored another massive victory as it is starting to appear less likely that any state is going to remove him from their election ballots.
A Colorado judge on Friday handed the former president another victory in another 14th Amendment case declaring that Trump was eligible to be on the state’s ballot, The Associated Press reported.
District Judge Sarah B. Wallace did say that the former president was guilty of engaging in an insurrection but found that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which names many positions that someone cannot attain if they are guilty of insurrection, does not specifically name the presidency.
“Part of the Court’s decision is its reluctance to embrace an interpretation which would disqualify a presidential candidate without a clear, unmistakable indication that such is the intent of Section Three,” the judge said.
“After considering the arguments on both sides, the Court is persuaded that ‘officers of the United States’ did not include the President of the United States,” she said. “It appears to the Court that for whatever reason the drafters of Section Three did not intend to include a person who had only taken the Presidential Oath.”
The former president’s team celebrated another victory in an email to supporters.
“We applaud today’s ruling in Colorado, which is another nail in the coffin of the un-American ballot challenges. With this decision, Democrats’ 14th Amendment challenges have now been defeated in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and New Hampshire. These cases represent the most cynical and blatant political attempts to interfere with the upcoming presidential election by desperate Democrats who know Crooked Joe Biden is a failed president on the fast track to defeat. The American voter has a Constitutional right to vote for the candidate of their choosing, with President Donald J. Trump leading by massive numbers. This right was correctly preserved in Colorado today and we urge the swift disposal of any and all remaining Democrat ballot challenges. Onward to total victory in 2024, we will Make America Great Again!” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said.
Days ago, a state judge in Michigan issued a ruling in a lawsuit aimed at preventing former President Donald Trump from appearing on the 2024 ballot under a Civil War-era provision in the U.S. Constitution.
“Court of Claims Judge James Redford rejected arguments that Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol meant the court had to declare him ineligible for the presidency. Redford wrote that, because Trump followed state law in qualifying for the primary ballot, he cannot remove the former president,” The Associated Press reported Tuesday following the ruling, the second in a week that turned away lawsuits seeking to bar Trump from ballots under the insurrection provision of the 14th Amendment.
What’s more, Redford ruled that it should be up to Congress to decide whether Trump should be disqualified from elected office under the amendment’s provision barring anyone who “engaged in insurrection.”
Redford said deciding whether an event constituted “a rebellion or insurrection and whether or not someone participated in it” are questions that are best left to Congress and not “one single judicial officer.”
Continuing, he wrote that a judge “cannot in any manner or form possibly embody the represented qualities of every citizen of the nation — as does the House of Representatives and the Senate.”
The AP noted that Free Speech For People, “a liberal group that has brought 14th Amendment cases in a number of states, said it will immediately appeal the ruling to the Michigan Court of Appeals.”
Following the decision, Ron Fein, the legal director of Free Speech For People, stated: “We are dissatisfied with the trial court’s decision and we are appealing it right away.”
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung responded by ticking off several other unsuccessful attempts to keep the former president off the ballot under the provision.
“Each and every one of these ridiculous cases have LOST because they are all un-Constitutional left-wing fantasies orchestrated by monied allies of the Biden campaign seeking to turn the election over to the courts and deny the American people the right to choose their next president,” Cheung said.
