Source: The Washington Post / Getty
INDIANAPOLIS — You’ve probably heard about former President Donald Trump being disqualified from Colorado’s 2024 election ballot. The question is, will it actually stick?
“I don’t (think it will stick),” says Dr. Laura Wilson, political science professor at the University of Indianapolis, “in part because this will go to the U.S. Supreme Court. It’s a conservative court – three of the members of the court are actually former President Trump nominees.”
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled 4-3 Tuesday that former President Trump’s involvement in the January 6th, 2021, Capitol riot was a violation of the 14th Amendment and its ban on insurrectionists running for public office.
“This goes back to post-Civil War. The 14th Amendment was written during that time,” Dr. Wilson explains, “the section 3 that’s particularly important here was (created) because of the Confederate soldiers and a concern that those involved in the Confederacy (whom) caused the nation’s great insurrection may want to get leadership positions and potentially have all this happen again. So, that third section barred people who had been involved in insurrections from serving in public office.”
But therein lies the problem, says Dr. Wilson. There have already been a few states Supreme Courts that have dismissed this exact legal challenge due to Trump’s January 6th-related legal battles still working through the court system. A detractor on the Colorado Supreme Court said they wouldn’t be able to judge Trump as an insurrectionist until the court cases are finished and a decision has been made that would actually fall under the 14th Amendment.
The former president plans to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, calling Colorado’s ruling a “completely flawed decision.”
With a mostly conservative United States Supreme Court, Dr. Wilson says this will most likely go Trump’s way. However, with Colorado’s Supreme Court ruling to remove Trump from the ballot, there’s now curiosity about which state would swing that way next.
As for Indiana, Dr. Wilson isn’t convinced the state would remove the 45th president from the ’24 ballot, “I don’t see it happening in Indiana. In part, of course Donald Trump is highly popular here. He won by great margins in 2016 and 2020, and I would anticipate if he is the nominee in 2024 that he’ll be successful in the Hoosier State in 2024.”
President Joe Biden told reporters Wednesday the decision will play out in court, but that he believes Trump has certainly further aligned himself with insurrection ideals.
