John,
The judge in our lawsuit seeking to bar Donald Trump from the ballot in Colorado just ruled that Donald Trump incited an insurrection—but that he is not disqualified because the president is not an “officer of the United States.”
We won on most of our claims, and plan to appeal the aspect we lost.
Let me explain what this ruling means:
We sued to enforce Trump’s constitutional disqualification under Section Three of 14th Amendment because he engaged in insurrection. Today, the judge affirmed that Donald Trump did just that.
But she ruled that Section 3 does not apply to Trump because he was president at the time, and presidents are not specifically listed in Section 3.
We disagree—as do many legal scholars. Section Three was put in place after the Civil War, to ensure that those who try to overthrow our government are not later put in charge of it. If that doesn’t apply to Trump, it’s hard to imagine who it would disqualify.
The evidence of Trump’s incitement of insurrection is overwhelming, and the many witnesses and mountains of evidence our legal team put forward in Colorado proved that.
We are proud of the case we put on over the last few weeks in Colorado, and we thank the judge for her careful consideration of this urgent question.
We plan to appeal the decision very soon and continue to make our case in court that Trump is disqualified. As we take this work to the next level, we could use all the support you can give. Can you make a donation today to help power this case?
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Section Three was put in place after the Civil War, to ensure that those who try to overthrow our government are not later put in charge of it. If that doesn’t apply to Trump, it’s hard to imagine who it would disqualify.
Since the attack on the Capitol, we’ve been worried that, if Trump was not barred from office, he would use the same insurrectionist playbook he did in 2020—and he could succeed. Our concerns only grew when it became clear that Trump had no remorse about the attack—instead promising to pardon convicted insurrectionists and calling them “patriots.”
That’s what’s at stake here, and that’s why we’re not giving up.
Thank you very much for your continued support of CREW in this effort. We couldn’t do this work without you.
Noah Bookbinder
President
CREW
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