The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that former President Donald Trump is ineligible for the United States presidency under the country’s constitution’s insurrection clause.
The ruling comes as the former US leader prepares to run for the presidency in 2024.
Trump is accused of inciting riots at the US Capitol Building in an effort to overturn the result after he lost the US election in 2020.
The ruling in Colorado sets up a likely showdown in the US Supreme Court, which has the final say on constitutional matters, to decide whether the frontrunner for the Republican nomination can remain in the race for the White House.
The Trump campaign has already said it will appeal to the US Supreme Court.
What does this mean for Trump?
The Colorado Supreme Court, whose justices were all appointed by Democratic governors, has now removed Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot.
It means as it stands voters in Colorado wouldn’t be able to choose Trump in the presidential election next year.
Colorado officials say the issue must be settled by 5 January, the deadline for the state to print its presidential primary ballots.
“A majority of the court holds that Trump is disqualified from holding the office of president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment,” the court wrote in its 4-3 decision.
Explainer:
All you need to know about Trump’s legal labyrinth
It marks the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed nationally to disqualify Trump under Section 3, which was designed to keep former Confederates from returning to government after the Civil War.
It bars from office anyone who swore an oath to “support” the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against it and has been used only a handful of times since the decade after the Civil War.
Sky News
