(ProsperNews.net) – MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow said if Colorado succeeds in keeping Donald Trump off its primary ballots, other states will follow. The Supreme Court of Colorado ruled in December that Trump is excluded from the ballot paper because he is disqualified from the Oval Office for violating the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which bars people guilty of insurrection. Mr. Trump immediately said he would appeal to the US Supreme Court.
Colorado’s decision does not take effect until the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, has delivered its ruling, but other states have already signaled they will pursue similar actions against the former President if the court lets Colorado’s ruling stand. Maddow said the Justices in Washington could be led by politics rather than strict application of the law. She added that Supreme Court Justices don’t like to think of themselves as political, “but I think we understand that they are.”
Maddow went on to justify Trump’s exclusion in the name of democracy and argued it is legitimate to keep candidates off the ballot paper if they present a broad threat to the future of the democratic process.
In its decision, the Supreme Court of Colorado noted a previous ruling by US Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch – appointed to the Court by Donald Trump. The Colorado judges cited Gorsuch’s comments in a ruling he delivered while he was a Circuit Court of Appeals judge in 2012. In the decision, Gorsuch confirmed the legitimacy of excluding a candidate from a ballot if that candidate is “constitutionally prohibited from assuming office.”
The Constitutional prohibition stems from the 14th Amendment’s declaration that insurrectionists be disqualified, and Colorado determined that Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021, amounted to insurrection.
Republicans rallied around Donald Trump in the wake of the ruling, including his most vocal critic, Chris Christie. Mr. Christie said it should be up to the American people, rather than the courts, to decide who occupies the White House.
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