Former President Donald Trump celebrated what he called a “gigantic” legal victory after a Colorado judge rejected an effort to keep him off the state’s primary ballot.
District Judge Sarah B. Wallace on Friday found Trump engaged in insurrection during the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, but allowed him to remain on Colorado’s primary ballot because it is unclear whether a Civil War-era Constitutional amendment barring insurrectionists from public office applies to the presidency.
The decision is the latest setback in efforts to disqualify Trump, who is leading the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Courts in Minnesota and Michigan have also rejected efforts to keep him off the Republican primary ballot, but have not ruled on his eligibility for the November 2024 general election.
Trump: Today the radical left Democrats and their allies in the fake news media back there with cameras — they are having a meltdown because last night our campaign won a gigantic court victory in Colorado. pic.twitter.com/gnS16DLz2E
— Acyn (@Acyn) November 18, 2023
Trump praised Wallace’s decision while speaking to a crowd at a high school in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on Saturday.
Democrats, their allies and the media, he claimed, are “having an absolute meltdown because last night, our campaign won a gigantic court victory in Colorado.”
He blasted the lawsuit “an outrageous attempt to disenfranchise millions of voters by getting us thrown off the ballot.”
And he called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the watchdog group that filed the case on behalf of a group of Republican and independent Colorado voters, a “bunch of losers.”
CREW President Noah Bookbinder said the group would appeal the ruling.
“The court’s decision affirms what our clients alleged in this lawsuit: that Donald Trump engaged in insurrection based on his role in January 6th,” Bookbinder said in a statement. “We are proud to have brought this historic case and know we are right on the facts and right on the law.”
Jim Vondruska/Getty Images
The lawsuit contended that Trump’s actions in relation to the Capitol attack ran afoul of a clause in the 14th Amendment that prevents anyone from holding office who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution.
But Wallace found that, as president, Trump was not “an officer of the United States” that could be disqualified under the amendment.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said on Friday that the ruling was “another nail in the coffin of the un-American ballot challenges.”
Cheung added: “The American voter has a Constitutional right to vote for the candidate of their choosing, with President Donald J. Trump leading by massive numbers. This right was correctly preserved in Colorado today and we urge the swift disposal of any and all remaining Democrat ballot challenges.”
CREW and Trump’s spokesperson have been contacted for further comment via email.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.