A Colorado district court judge ruled Friday that Donald Trump must be placed on the ballot in the 2024 presidential contest.
Judge Sarah Wallace, appointed in 2022 by Democrat Gov. Jared Polis, ruled that Trump did engage in insurrection on January 6, 2021, but was not an officer of the United States as defined by the Fourteenth Amendment.
The lawsuit cited the Fourteenth Amendment’s “,” which bans those who “engaged in insurrection” from holding federal office, as justification for booting Trump from the ballot.
Trump’s attorneys had claimed he never “engaged in insurrection” and that his questioning of the 2020 election results is political speech protected by the First Amendment.
“Trump’s comments did not come close to ‘incitement,’ let alone ‘engagement’ in an insurrection,” they wrote.
Wallace disagreed.
Yet she looked more favorably upon Trump’s team’s argument that the amendment does not apply to the office of the president. The text of the amendment specifies “Senator or Representative in Congress” and “elector of President and Vice President” but not “President.”
Trump has not been convicted of insurrection and was acquitted by the U.S. Senate of charges of engaging in insurrection and continues to deny wrongdoing.
Wallace previously denied