Trump Vows To Appeal After Removal From Colorado Ballot

HEMPSTEAD, NY — Legal experts are exploring the Colorado Supreme Court's ruling to remove Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot.

While it's a setback on the surface for Trump, he vows to appeal, potentially putting the U.S. Supreme Court directly into the crosshairs of the election.

"I imagine court members would have preferred not to be faced with this question," James Sample, a Hofstra University constitutional law professor, told Patch. "It is an extraordinarily pressing question."

While Trump didn't win Colorado in 2016 or 2020, the bigger issue is a domino effect by other states, Sample contended.

"It could have the consequence of preventing Trump from getting to 270 [electoral college votes]. I think that's a far-fetched proposition at this point," he said.

The legal basis for disqualification stems from Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states:

"No person shall ... hold any office, civil or military, under the United States ... who, having previously taken an oath ... as an officer of the United States ... to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion."

It was based on the Civil War, but the language is being used in Colorado to link Trump to an insurrection on January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol.

Although the expected reaction to the Colorado ruling is overwhelmingly following party lines, Chris Christie, a 2024 presidential hopeful who has been calling out Trump as his campaign focus, is against letting justices decide and not voters.

"The best way for the Republican party to have rejected Donald Trump would have been for them to vote in the second impeachment to convict and we wouldn't be in this situation," Sample said. "The second best way would be for the voters in the Republican party to categorically reject him as their nominee and we wouldn't be in this situation."