Donald Trump eligible for Colorado's 2024 primary ballot, judge rules

Nov. 17 (UPI) -- A Colorado district judge ruled Donald Trump is eligible to be on the state's 2024 presidential primary ballot, rejecting claims the former president should be barred under a constitutional amendment that disqualifies candidates who've engaged in "insurrection or rebellion" against the United States.

Judge Sarah B. Wallace cited "competing interpretations" of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment and a "lack of definitive guidance in the text or historical sources" to determine how it applies to Trump. She ordered the secretary of state to place Trump on the presidential primary ballot when it is certified on Jan. 5, 2024.

"As a result, the court holds that Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment does not apply to Trump," the judge wrote.

Six Republican and unaffiliated voters in Colorado, represented by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed the lawsuit in September, saying Trump's actions during the Jan. 6 insurrection invoked the ban.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment states the following:

"No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."

On Nov. 8, a Minnesota judge refused to remove Trump from the state's Republican primaries. In Michigan, a similar case may be headed to the state Supreme Court after an activist group appealed a judge's ruling that Trump be allowed on the ballot.