'No possible rationale' to exclude presidents from insurrection clause: Colorado attorney

Donald Trump's defense rests on the idea that the framers of the 14th Amendment "made an extraordinary mistake" by excluding presidents from the insurrection clause, according to the lawyer representing Colorado voters in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Denver attorney Jason Murray, who successfully petitioned Colorado's top court to disqualify Trump from the state's ballot, argued the case be fore the nation's Supreme Court, where he rejected the former president's arguments in his opening statement.

"We are here because, for the first time since the War of 1812, our nation's Capitol came under violent assault," Murray said. "For the first time in history, the attack was incited by a sitting president of the United States to disrupt the peaceful transfer of presidential power. By engaging in insurrection against the Constitution, President Trump disqualified himself from public office."

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"As we heard earlier, President Trump's main argument is that this court should create a special exemption to Section 3 that would apply to him and to him alone," Murray continued. "He says Section 3 disqualifies all oath-breaking insurrectionists, except a former president who never before held other state or federal office. There is no possible rationale for such an exemption, and the court should reject the claim that the framers made an extraordinary mistake. Section 3 uses deliberately broad language to cover all positions of federal power requiring an oath to the Constitution. My friend [Trump attorney Jonathan Mitchell] relies on a claimed difference between an office under and an officer of the United States. But this case does not come down to mere prepositions."

"President Trump's other arguments for reversal ignore the constitutional role of the states in running presidential elections," Murray concluded. "Under Article 2 and the 10th Amendment, states have the power to ensure that their citizens' electoral votes are not wasted on a candidate who is constitutionally barred from holding office. States are allowed to safeguard their ballots by excluding those who are under age, foreign-born, running for a third presidential term or, as here, those who have engaged in insurrection against the Constitution in violation of their oath."

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