Disqualifying Trump from the ballot is a political minefield. We can’t avoid it | Opinion
In an unprecedented move, the Colorado Supreme Court issued a ruling Tuesday disqualifying Donald Trump from the state’s Republican primary ballot due to his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The ruling hinges upon a section of the 14th Amendment that disqualifies people who engage in insurrection from holding office, designed to prevent former Confederate leaders from serving in Congress after the Civil War. That provision has been used to challenge the candidacy of various far-right lawmakers in recent years, including North Carolina’s own Madison Cawthorn, but no court has greenlit such a challenge until now.
It’s a tricky situation, politically speaking. Removing a candidate from the ballot instead of leaving the decision up to the voters has the appearance of being undemocratic. And, while there may be legal grounds for disqualifying Trump, it also gives Republicans fodder for their “Democrats are out to get Trump” narrative. Already, GOP lawmakers have blasted the court for its “judicial activism,” just as they blasted the Justice Department and the FBI for investigating Trump’s alleged criminal activity. To them, this is just another part of a grand conspiracy to take down Trump — an accusation that seems to stem from Trump himself.
“EVERY CASE I AM FIGHTING IS THE WORK OF THE DOJ & WHITE HOUSE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday morning. “NO SUCH THING HAS EVER HAPPENED IN OUR COUNTRY BEFORE. BANANA REPUBLIC??? ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!”
To be clear, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that the White House or the Biden administration more generally is involved in the Colorado ruling, or any of the legal matters Trump is facing. But Trump is correct when he says that this has never happened before. It’s the first time in our country’s history that the so-called “insurrection clause” has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate from the ballot. Of course, a sitting president attempting to remain in office following an election he indisputably lost is unprecedented, too.
Even Republicans who wouldn’t ordinarily be considered staunch Trump defenders are pushing back against the ruling. Thom Tillis, North Carolina’s senior U.S. senator, announced Tuesday that he would be filing legislation titled the “Constitutional Election Integrity Act,” which would prevent state politicians and other state entities from disqualifying presidential candidates from the ballot. In addition to clarifying that only the U.S. Supreme Court may rule on whether to disqualify a candidate from the ballot, the bill also would withhold federal funding for election administration from states that “misuse the 14th Amendment for political purposes.”
Political onlookers expect the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case, which would have significant implications across the country. If the Colorado ruling were allowed to stand, other states could use that precedent to disqualify Trump and other candidates with ties to Jan. 6.
That includes North Carolina. Just hours before the Colorado ruling, the N.C. State Board of Elections dismissed a similar challenge to disqualify Trump from the North Carolina ballot. Board members said they did not believe they had the legal authority to keep Trump off of the ballot, and the board’s lawyer cited a Minnesota Supreme Court decision that said elections officials there couldn’t ban Trump from the primary ballot, WRAL News reported.
There’s no question that Trump is unfit to serve. He quite literally tried to overthrow our government, and his rhetoric now is growing increasingly authoritarian. Whether he deserves to be president again shouldn’t be much of a question, but it’s not unreasonable to think that it’s still a question best left to the voters.
Still, the Constitution is clear: No one who took an oath to uphold the Constitution can hold office again if they violated that oath by engaging in insurrection. Employing that provision is a political minefield, especially when it comes to members of Congress who played a fuzzier role in the events leading up to Jan. 6. But with Trump, the evidence is far stronger. If we believe he betrayed our country, then politics can’t stop us from holding him accountable.
This story was originally published December 20, 2023 at 12:10 PM with the headline "Disqualifying Trump from the ballot is a political minefield. We can’t avoid it | Opinion."
