Trump is prohibited from voting by the Colorado Supreme Court due to "insurrection."

 Trump is prohibited from voting by the Colorado Supreme Court due to "insurrection."

Donald Trump will not be able to seek the presidency in Colorado in 2019, the Supreme Court of Colorado decided, citing the insurrection provision in the constitution.

The US Supreme Court decided, 4–3, that Mr. Trump was ineligible to run for office due to his involvement in the almost three-year-old US Capitol disturbance.

Even if Mr. Trump may still run for president in the US next year, this might make things harder for him.

The US Supreme Court would be the target of his campaign's plea.

Mr. Trump's advisors criticized the choice, calling it "grossly flawed".

The sole reference to the state's primary election—which takes place on March 5 and will determine Republican voters' choice for president—is made in the verdict. However, it may have an effect on Colorado's general elections in November of next year.

This is the first time that a presidential candidate has been disqualified under Section 3 of the US Constitution.

The ruling on Tuesday only pertains to Colorado and has been postponed until next month awaiting an appeal. Attempts to exclude Mr. Trump from the voting process have also been unsuccessful in New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Michigan.

"We do not reach these conclusions lightly," the justices concluded in their ruling. We understand the importance and size of the issues that are now in front of us."

"We are also aware of our grave responsibility to uphold the law, free from fear or favor, and unaffected by the opinions of the general public regarding the choices the law directs us to make."

The ruling overturns a previous ruling by a Colorado court that presidents are exempt from the 14th Amendment's prohibition on insurrection since the clause does not specifically identify them.

The same judge from the lower court also concluded that Mr. Trump had taken part in the rebellion during the US Capitol incident. His followers invaded Congress on January 6, 2021, as MPs were announcing President Joe Biden's electoral win.

The ruling of the Colorado Supreme Court won't be operative until January 4, 2024. It is the night before the state's deadline for printing its ballots for the presidential primary.

Spokesman for the Trump campaign Steven Cheung referred to the ruling as "grossly flawed" and attacked the judges, all of whom were chosen by Democratic governors.

According to a statement from Mr. Cheung, "leaders in the Democratic Party are increasingly alarmed by President Trump's growing and commanding lead in the polls."

"They are now making every effort to keep Joe Biden in office come November because they no longer have faith in the disastrous Biden presidency."

According to Mr. Cheung, the legal team representing Mr. Trump will "expeditiously file an appeal" with the US Supreme Court, which is presided over by conservatives 6 to 3.

notified of the legal actions taken to prevent Trump from voting

In response to the Colorado ruling, Mr. Biden's reelection campaign representatives remained silent. However, a senior Democratic source close to the campaign told CBS News, the US partner of the BBC, that Democrats will be able to use the ruling to bolster their claim that the US Capitol riot was an attempted rebellion.

According to the source, Democrats would be able to highlight the "serious differences" between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden with its assistance.

Republican members, including Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, denounced the ruling, calling it "a veiled partisan attack."

He said, "Regardless of political affiliation, every citizen registered to vote should not be denied the right to support our former president and the man who is the leader in every Republican primary."

During the campaign, Mr. Trump's Republican primary opponents also criticized the decision; Vivek Ramaswamy vowed to remove his name from the ballot should Mr. Trump's candidacy not be allowed to return.

During his Tuesday night speech at a campaign rally in Iowa, Mr. Trump did not mention the decision. However, "This is how dictatorships are born" was written in a fundraising email his campaign addressed to its supporters.

In response, the Colorado Republican Party said that if the ruling was upheld, it would not participate in the state's primary elections.

The organization that took up the lawsuit, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), applauded the ruling.

The head of the organization, Noah Bookbinder, said in a statement that "this is not only historic and appropriate, but necessary to protect the future of democracy in our country."

Following the American Civil War, the 14th Amendment was passed. Section 3 was designed to prevent former separatist officials from taking on new positions in government after the Southern states re-joined the Union.

It was used to both the vice president of the Confederacy, Alexander Stephens, and the president Jefferson Davis, who were both members of Congress. It has seldom been used since then.

Colorado was a very defeatist state for Mr. Trump in the most recent presidential election. However, there may be major issues for Mr. Trump's presidential campaign if judges in states with higher levels of competition uphold the decision made on Tuesday.

The former president's attorneys said that he shouldn't be disqualified because he refused to accept responsibility for the US Capitol riot at a hearing that lasted for a week in Colorado last month.

Nonetheless, the Colorado Supreme Court's majority panel disapproved of the ruling.

In his words, Mr. Trump issued "a call to his supporters to fight and... his supporters responded to that call" before to the incident.

Amidst the three dissenting judges, Carlos Samour said that the government "cannot deprive anyone of the right to hold public office without due process of law".

He added, "There should be procedural due process before we declare a candidate unfit to hold public office, even if we are convinced that they have committed terrible acts in the past—dare I say insurrection."

A federal and a state case in Georgia are among the four criminal charges against Mr. Trump that are connected to his purported attempts to undermine the election.