Following a challenge to President Trump’s eligibility to appear on the ballot in Colorado a judge has ruled he can.
A district court judge ruled Trump can appear on the ballot rejecting a 14th Amendment argument against it.
It was the first time a court had ruled on the merits of whether Mr. Trump, with his actions before and during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, had engaged in insurrection against the Constitution after taking an oath to support it — an offense deemed disqualifying by Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868 to keep former Confederates out of the government.
The twist was that Sarah B. Wallace, the Denver district court judge overseeing the case, ruled that Mr. Trump did engage in insurrection — but that Section 3 did not apply to him.
Because the clause does not explicitly name the presidency, the question hinged on whether the president was included in the category “officer of the United States.”
Because of “the absence of the president from the list of positions to which the amendment applies combined with the fact that Section Three specifies that the disqualifying oath is one to ‘support’ the Constitution whereas the presidential oath is to ‘preserve, protect and defend’ the Constitution,” Judge Wallace wrote, “it appears to the court that for whatever reason the drafters of Section Three did not intend to include a person who had only taken the presidential oath.”
