The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that former US President Donald Trump should be disqualified from holding the presidency and removed from the state's ballot in the upcoming presidential election because of his role in inciting violence against the US government in 2021, UNN reports citing Voice of America.
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The decision may be the first time in the country's history that a presidential candidate is potentially barred from the White House under the rarely used 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted after the Civil War and prohibiting anyone who has once taken the oath of office but then "participated in rebellion or insurrection."
The Colorado court's ruling applies only to the Republican primaries to be held in the state on March 5. However, the court's ruling is likely to affect Trump's status in the November 5 general election, the newspaper writes.
The Colorado court said the decision was suspended until January 4, 2024, to allow for an appeal.
Trump's campaign has already called the court's decision "erroneous" and "undemocratic" and said it would be appealed.
"The Colorado Supreme Court made a completely wrong decision today, and we will quickly appeal to the Supreme Court and ask for a stay of this deeply undemocratic decision," said a Trump campaign spokesman. He condemned the use of the 14th Amendment as an attempt to deny millions of voters the right to choose a president.
Trump's lawyer argued that the unrest in the Capitol was not serious enough to qualify as a riot, and that Trump's remarks to his supporters in Washington that day were protected by the right to free speech. The lawyer argued that the courts have no right to require Trump to be removed from the ballot.
Trump's opponents hope to use this case to galvanize a broader effort to disqualify him and bring the issue to the Supreme Court. However, most of the justices on the US Supreme Court are conservatives, with three being Trump appointees.