Colorado Supreme Court smacks down Trump's last-ditch bid to stop insurrection trial

The Supreme Court of Colorado has rejected an 11th-hour bid by former President Donald Trump to throw out a case that could get him disqualified from the ballot in that state — and prove a test case for constitutional activists in other states.

Lawfare's Roger Parloff flagged the decision on Friday evening.

The case, litigated by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), seeks to have Trump ruled ineligible for the Colorado ballot due to the Insurrection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which was passed in the wake of the Civil War and bars those who have engaged in "insurrection" from holding office except by a waiver from Congress. A number of prominent legal scholars, like former Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe and former conservative federal judge Michael Luttig, have advocated this reading of the Constitution.

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This comes after a lower court judge already denied this motion by Trump.

Similar cases have been filed in some other states, including Minnesota, raising the question of what implications a loss in Colorado would have for Trump's ballot access around the country — but even though the case turns on a question in the federal Constitution, the process would be subject to the law in each individual state.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold has criticized Trump for his unwillingness to face the court in this case. "You would think, with such a big case, that the potential candidate would want to come and give their side of the story," she recently said.