Colorado judge rejects attempt to remove Trump from the electoral process

A judge in Colorado, United States (US), rejected a lawsuit that sought to prevent former President Donald Trump from being on the Republican Party primary ballots in this state for allegedly “participating” in an insurrection.

The lawsuit argued that the former president was ineligible to be in the election because this violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits US officials who “engage in insurrections” from holding office in the future.

After hearing arguments from the plaintiffs and the former president’s defense, Judge Sarah Wallace said that the 14th Amendment does not apply to presidents.

“After considering the arguments of both sides, the Court is convinced that ‘officials of the United States’ did not include the President of the United States,” the judge wrote in her ruling, shared by the network CNN.

The decision comes after judges in Minnesota and Michigan also refused to remove Trump from those states’ Republican primaries in lawsuits making the same argument.

In the closing arguments of the Colorado case, the former president’s defense used the Minnesota and Michigan rulings, arguing that there was already “a consensus” about who was covered by the insurrection provision of the 14th Amendment and that it clearly excluded Trump.

The Amendment, ratified after the Civil War, does not say how to enforce the ban, and it has only been enforced twice since 1919, so many experts view these challenges as a long shot.

Regardless of the initial sentences in these cases, it is expected that one or more of these appeals will end up reaching the US Supreme Court, with a conservative majority.

-With information from EFE.