DENVER (AP) — A divided Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday declared former President Donald Trump ineligible for the White House under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause and removed him from the state’s presidential primary ballot, setting up a likely showdown in the nation’s highest court to decide whether the front-runner for the GOP nomination can remain in the race.
This is not actually setting a precedent… This determination was made numerous times before without convictions, mostly in the aftermath of the Civil War. The precedent of a conviction or even a formal charge being unnecessary is long-standing.
Notably, it’s part of the matter of fact ruling of the CO courts that Trump committed sedition. It would be VERY uncommon for federal courts to change those matters of fact – they would instead rule on matters of law.
There’s a lot to be said about the flaws in this disqualification. Is the 14th self-enforcing such that courts even have the authority to make a ruling to disqualify? Was there full due process? Why didn’t the 14th specifically name POTUS if it named electors of the POTUS as subjects of disqualification? Will the SCOTUS just step in and be a political & lawmaking body because they feel like it as usual?
But it would be VERY weird for the courts to rule “not seditionist”. That would surprise even the most cynical legal scholars, I think.