Trump’s legal team also tried to throw cold water on the idea in a filing earlier this week, writing that the “events of January 6 were not an ‘insurrection’ as they did not involve an organized attempt to overthrow or resist the U.S. government.”
Trump disagrees, apparently.
“They kept saying about what I said right after the insurrection,” he said outside Mar-a-Lago after arguments concluded in Washington, D.C. “I think it was an insurrection caused by Nancy Pelosi.
There’s no doubt, the rightists on the court want him there and the liberals are terrified of speaking out one this one. The procedural argument they’re using is that “the 14th Amendment delegates this power to Congress, so Colorado doesn’t get to unilaterally decide because they’re bypassing Congress.” Unfortunately for this line of argument, Congress already used its authority to pass a law, 18 U.S.C. § 2383, which states that anybody who engages “in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto” is ineligible for political office.
Since the courts have already sent a variety of participants and organizers to prison for seditious conspiracy, seems pretty reasonable to conclude there have already been findings than Jan 6 was an insurrection or rebellion of some kind, or else it wouldn’t have been seditious. Even more to the point, participants in Jan 6 have already been found ineligible and removed from public office due to their participation in Jan 6. Colorado is simply applying already-existing federal statutes regarding Trump’s eligibility, and more to the point, arguably states that ARE putting him on the ballot are actually the ones flaunting federal law.