John, just a reminder: We would not be in this position if the Supreme Court had followed the Constitution and enforced Donald Trump's disqualification from office for inciting an insurrection.

We sued on behalf of six Colorado voters last year to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which constitutionally disqualified Donald Trump from holding office because of his efforts to keep himself in power despite losing the 2020 election and inciting the insurrection on January 6, 2021.

We actually won our case in the Colorado Supreme Court. But Donald Trump and his legal team appealed it all the way to the Supreme Court. And while the Supreme Court refused to bar Donald Trump from the ballot, they did not exonerate Donald Trump for inciting insurrection.

John, Donald Trump is an oath-breaking insurrectionist and we refused to let him off the hook for that disqualifying conduct.

We’d seen Trump get away with breaking the law and dodging accountability time and time again. And we knew we had to stand up and give the courts the chance to do the right thing. We did our part, but the Supreme Court failed to do theirs and enforce the Constitution.

Our lawsuit was the culmination of years of careful consideration, precedent-setting cases, legal research and compiling the evidence needed to prove Trump’s disqualification.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prohibits anyone who swore an oath to support the Constitution and then engaged in insurrection from holding state or federal office. It was put in place after the Civil War to ensure that those who rose up against the United States government would not then be put in charge of it.

The evidence of Trump’s incitement of insurrection was overwhelming, and the many witnesses and mountains of evidence our legal team put forward in Colorado proved that.

We knew that we had a strong, winning argument because we had used this argument to remove an insurrectionist from office before.

In 2022, a landmark case brought by CREW made Cowboys for Trump co-founder and former County Commissioner Couy Griffin the first elected official removed and barred from office for participating in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. We believed the same argument could be made against Donald Trump.

But the Court chose to ignore Donald Trump’s conduct surrounding the January 6th attack, and instead ruled that states simply do not have the power to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment against federal candidates unless Congress says they can.

I am still disappointed and angry that the Court failed to bar Trump from the ballot. It was a test for the Court, and it failed to meet the moment.

One institution after another has failed to step up and use the tools our Constitution provides to protect us from the threats to our democracy – including the Supreme Court.

That’s why we’re not just fighting to hold Donald Trump accountable, but also to reform the Supreme Court.

Clarence Thomas ruled on our 14th Amendment case, despite his wife’s direct involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. And Samuel Alito ruled on our election case, despite flying flags associated with January 6th and the “Stop the Steal” movement at his house.

Their refusal to recuse themselves from insurrection-related cases, along with their other simmering ethics scandals, call into question the integrity and impartiality of the Supreme Court.

That’s why CREW has continued pushing for judicial ethics reforms like a binding Code of Conduct, a ban on judicial stock trading and term limits to restore integrity to the Supreme Court.

Look John, I know that the work ahead will be challenging. But that’s what it means to take on big fights. We’re taking big swings – and we won’t always win – but it’s necessary work.

Thank you,

Donald Sherman
Executive Director
CREW

P.S. If you didn’t know, if you’re a federal employee or retiree, you can now give to CREW as part of the Combined Federal Campaign! Our CFC number is 42218. Your support means so much to all of us.