Days before a civil trial against former President Donald Trump in Colorado is set to begin, Colorado District Judge Sarah Wallace rejected the former president’s legal arguments for dismissing the case.
The left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has sued the former president and Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold on behalf of six voters in Colorado to keep President Trump off the state’s ballot. The trial begins on Oct. 30.
On Sept. 29, President Trump filed a motion to dismiss, and on Oct. 25 Judge Wallace rejected it on the basis that the plaintiffs, the six citizens, can obtain relief through the petition.
“Motions to dismiss are disfavored, and may be granted when … the plaintiff would still not be entitled to any relief under any cognizable legal theory,” she wrote. In this case, the relief would be keeping President Trump off the ballot.
Similar lawsuits have been filed in other states, and some have already been dismissed. Several officials have said that the issue will ultimately land in the U.S. Supreme Court, including judges who declined to rule on the matter for a state.
Arguments
In the motion to dismiss, President Trump’s legal team put forth several defenses, including arguing that Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment does not apply to President Trump and the lawsuit fails to tie Mr. Trump to an “insurrection,” and that Congress has preempted states from judging presidential qualifications.
The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified after the Civil War, which conferred citizenship and equal rights to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, with the intention of protecting the rights of all former slaves. It included a section that barred those who had engaged in “insurrections of rebellions” against the nation from holding office, unless they had two-thirds approval from Congress.
Recently, the untested theory that President Trump could be barred from running for the presidency again because the events of Jan. 6, 2021, could constitute as an “insurrection” has picked up steam among some left-leaning advocacy groups, and lawsuits have been filed on behalf of citizens in several states.
By Catherine Yang
