2024 US Presidential Election: Donald Trump eligible for Colorado's primary ballot, judge dismisses lawsuit
Donald Trump can remain on the state's presidential primary ballot, said Colorado District Judge Sarah Wallace on Friday. He rejected the arguments that Trump violated his oath of office by engaging in an insurrection. This came after similar court decisions in Minnesota and Michigan that left Trump on the ballot in those states, according to a report published by AFP. The rulings mark a victory for the former Republican President as he staves off well-funded legal challenges seeking to bar his return to the White House in elections next year.
In her ruling, Wallace said, “The Court orders the Secretary of State to place Donald J. Trump on the presidential primary ballot when it certifies the ballot on January 5, 2024." The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), a Washington-based watchdog group filed a lawsuit against Trump in Colorado, claiming that Trump is ineligible to run for the White House again because of the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters. However, Trump's lawyers won the battle in Colorado.
Similar legal efforts in other states may mean that the issue of Trump's eligibility ends up before the US Supreme Court, where conservatives hold a 6-3 majority. Judge Wallace noted ‘persuasive arguments on both sides’ but said that she believed presidents were not meant to be included among those who could be barred from holding public office, AFP reported. "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," she wrote in the ruling.
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