Former US president Donald Trump has been disqualified from vying for presidency in the 2024 elections in Colorado State.
Colorado’s Supreme Court removed Trump from the ballot, citing a constitutional insurrection clause.
In the 4-3 ruling, Trump was found not to be an eligible presidential candidate because of he engaged in insurrection over the US capital three years ago.
“President Trump did not merely incite the insurrection,” the majority wrote in its unsigned opinion.
“Even when the siege on the Capitol was fully underway, he continued to support it by repeatedly demanding that Vice President (Mike) Pence refuse to perform his constitutional duty and by calling Senators to persuade them to stop the counting of electoral votes. These actions constituted overt, voluntary, and direct participation in the insurrection.”
“We conclude that the foregoing evidence, the great bulk of which was undisputed at trial, established that President Trump engaged in insurrection,” the opinion added. “President Trump’s direct and express efforts, over several months, exhorting his supporters to march to the Capitol to prevent what he falsely characterized as an alleged fraud on the people of this country were indisputably overt and voluntary.”
The ruling is however applies only in Colorado state. It hold pending the hearing and determination of Trump’s appeal.
Trump’s allies termed the ruling anti-democratic.