By Mike Huckabee
December 20, 2023
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Melissa Hart. Monica M. Marquez. Richard L. Gabriel. William W. Hood III.
These four unelected Colorado Supreme Court justices, in a 4-3 ruling, are guilty of one of the most preposterous cases of judicial overreach in the history of “our democracy.” Until this travesty can be reversed on appeal before the United States Supreme Court, our Republic is LESS democratic because of them. Democratic principles and the Constitution founded on them have been tossed out the window.
They ruled that Trump is ineligible to be on the Colorado ballot for President under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which disqualifies sworn officials who “engaged in insurrection.” This is the dream of Trump-haters who were willing to do anything, sacrifice any principle, to strike him from the ballot and nullify the choice of Americans who support him.
Oh, and if you think those voters can just write in his name, you’re in for a shock. They thought of that, ruling that “the Secretary [of State] may not list President Trump’s name on the 2024 Presidential primary ballot, nor may she count any write-in votes cast for him.”
If anyone is a threat to democracy and unfit for public office, it’s these judges whose brains have been so eaten away by the TDS virus that they can’t be trusted to honor the Constitution and uphold the most basic rights.
https://dailycaller.com/2023/
This is election interference right out in the open. To accomplish this, they had to contort history and the law so much that these can hardly be recognized any longer.
Let’s look at history. As you probably know, the 14th Amendment was ratified soon after the Civil War, in 1868, for the purpose of disqualifying members of the Confederacy from holding U.S. office. The people who wrote it had just just been through a REAL insurrection that killed hundreds of thousands of people. I wonder if those Colorado judges have the slightest idea what that was, or if they even care. They were just grasping at whatever they could use.
Now, as to Trump himself engaging in “insurrection.” The barracuda currently masquerading as Trump’s special counsel would eagerly have prosecuted him for that if he thought for a minute he’d be able to make that stick, but he didn’t. Trump not only hasn’t been convicted of insurrection, he hasn’t even been charged with it, not by the most Trump-deranged prosecutor on the planet.
Dissenting Colorado Chief Justice Brian Boatright recognized this, arguing that Colorado’s election law “was not enacted to decide whether a candidate engaged in insurrection. In the absence of an insurrection-related conviction, I would hold that a request to disqualify a candidate under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment is not a proper cause of action under Colorado’s election code.”
Another dissenter, Justice Carlos Samour, said in a lengthy opinion that this suit is not a “fair mechanism” for determining Trump’s eligibility for the ballot because it deprives him of his right to due process, as he has not been convicted. “Even if we are convinced that a candidate committed horrible acts in the past --- dare I say, engaged in insurrection --- there must be procedural due process before we can declare that individual disqualified from holding public office,” he wrote.
Hard to believe we’re linking to NEWSWEEK on this, but they actually have good coverage on what the dissenters (all Democrats, incidentally) said.
https://www.newsweek.com/
In Colorado alone, there are 3.8 million voters, including close to a million registered Republicans (that ratio, by the way, gives you a clue as to what’s wrong with their Supreme Court.) And this outrage is going on all over the country. As Kayleigh McEnany pointed out on FOX NEWS last night, there have been 31 cases seeking Trump’s’ removal from the ballot. More than a dozen cases remain pending, some in “red” states such as Texas and South Carolina. (One was dismissed in Florida. Thank you, Florida.)
Well, so much for the will of the people. In McEnany’s words, “If you can’t beat them, disqualify them.”
Former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker made a great point: “This was a close call for them. It was a 4-3 decision. And when you take someone off the ballot and disqualify a candidate, it should be with unbelievable evidence…” The facts are “very thin” here, he said, based on the findings of the ultra-partisan January 6 committee “from Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff and others.” Trump, he noted, told his supporters to go “peacefully and patriotically” to the Capitol building to make their voices heard.
“This court just ignores anything that is evidence that helps President Trump.” He pointed out that other state Supreme Courts have looked at this issue and “nobody’s been willing to go out as far” as this one. It’s a completely partisan attempt that the left is celebrating right now.
Of course, the U.S. Supreme Court will have the final say. Colorado only has till January 5 (!) to have this settled, so law professor Jonathan Turley says it’ll be put on the “rocket docket.” The U.S. Supreme Court absolutely must get involved, he says, because the Colorado Supreme Court is “dead wrong.” To get to their opinion on this, the Colorado court had to have a “sweeping interpretation on every single issue in order to get where they wanted to go” --- except on one particular issue, that of free speech. “Then they adopt a narrow interpretation. They suggest that Trump DOESN’T have free speech protection.” They even hearken back to speeches Trump made in 2016!
“The path that this court has put us on could not be more dangerous,” according to Turley. “...You know this country needs some healing. And what the Colorado Supreme Court did is they basically took a blow at democracy in the name of democracy...We never needed the democratic process more. We need voters to be able to make a decision. Because at some point we have to come back together.”
If this sort of thing were ever to be allowed to stand, we would no longer be recognizable as America. As Turley has written, “Such ballot-cleansing is common in countries like Iran, where citizens await to learn which opposition candidates will be allowed to run.” That’s why, we would add, this abomination has to be a shocking wake-up call for American voters, as it reveals just how far the left is willing to push the boundaries. They HAVE no boundaries. They say they care about “democracy”? Give me a break.
Here’s what Turley wrote about the lower-court judge’s opinion in November, before the case went to the State Supreme Court. Judge Sarah Wallace was right, he said, in rejecting the 14th Amendment argument but very wrong in her analysis when she said Trump’s speech was inciteful and unprotected.
As for legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, he had no problem calling this election rigging. Again, an “insurrection” means taking up arms against the United States, as the South did during the Civil War. “To remove Donald Trump from the ballot for an offense that he hasn’t even been tried or convicted of --- what is that? It’s violating his right to due process, which happens to be guaranteed by [that] very amendment, the 14th, and elsewhere in the Constitution.”
Importantly, Jarrett also pointed out that the language in the amendment doesn’t even apply to the office of President. Colorado officials have “brazenly manipulated the clause for purely political reasons, another example of election interference by Trump opponents. This is an effort --- make no mistake --- to deprive Americana voters of THEIR right to make the decision as to who should be President. It is ANTI-democratic. It’s the equivalent of rigging the ballot box.” Jarrett sees it as inflaming voters and further boosting Trump’s support (as it should).
RELATED: Republican presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has said he’s removing his name from the Colorado ballot, on the principle that Republicans --- not the courts --- should be able to pick their own nominee. He’s calling on the other GOP candidates to remove their names as well. He sees failure to do so as “tacitly endorsing this illegal maneuver which will have disastrous consequences for our country.” Good for him!
Here, Vivek is included in a round-up of explosive social media reaction…
Ron DeSantis and even Trump’s staunchest Republican critic Chris Christie also slammed the decision, as did Robert Kennedy Jr., who tweeted, “Let the voters choose, not the courts!”
This outrageous ruling not only is a body blow to the rule of law and our democratic process, it also has done serious damage to America’s international standing, giving other nation’s the perfect response when we criticize their rigged elections. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele warned that "The United States has lost its ability to lecture any other country about ‘democracy.’”
COMPARE AND CONTRAST: This isn’t the only courtroom travesty going on. The six alternate Trump electors from 2020 in Nevada were indicted earlier this month.
And here’s some potentially good news for several January 6 defendants, including Trump. Watch this 7-1/2-minute video and see how the Supreme Court is getting involved...
For when you have time, here’s Julie Kelly with more on that…
https://www.declassified.live/
FINAL WORD: We’ll give that to President Trump, who posted on Truth Social: “‘Justice’ weaponization is a very dirty game to play, and it can have repercussions far greater than anything that Biden or his Thugs could understand. They ought to withdraw all of their Fake, Political Indictments against their Republican Opponent, me, immediately. This is a Pandora’s box, that works two ways, and it should be closed and tightly sealed RIGHT NOW.”
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