Trump kicked off the Colorado ballot: What happens now?

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s 2024 front-runner, was booted off the primary ballot in Colorado Tuesday night after four Democrat-appointed state Supreme Court justices ruled that he was ineligible for the White House.

It marked the first time in American history that Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment — which disqualifies insurrectionists from office — has been used to deem a presidential candidate ineligible for the White House.

Here, The Post delves into what the landmark decision could mean for the 2024 presidential election.

What was the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling?

Four of the seven Colorado Supreme Court justices ruled Tuesday night that Trump, 77, took part in a rebellion against the United States when his supporters ransacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, delaying the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.

“President Trump did not merely incite the insurrection,” read the majority opinion.

“Even when the siege on the Capitol was fully underway, he continued to support it by repeatedly demanding that Vice President [Mike] Pence refuse to perform his constitutional duty and by calling Senators to persuade them to stop the counting of electoral votes.

“These actions constituted overt, voluntary and direct participation in the insurrection.”

However, the majority also noted that Trump has not been convicted of inciting an insurrection by a jury, and the Colorado Supreme Court did not have the right to subpoena records or compel witnesses to testify — among other rights afforded to criminal defendants.

What is the Insurrection Clause?

Often referred to as the Disqualification Clause, Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War.

“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,” the clause states.

“But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”

There are a number of debates surrounding that language, such as what precisely constitutes an insurrection and whether it prohibits someone from running for president.

Trump’s legal team previously argued that the clause does not outright ban anyone from seeking office.

“Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment does not prohibit someone from running for office — it prohibits someone from holding office, and even then, only if Congress chooses not to lift the prohibition,” his team wrote in an October filing.

Can Trump still run for president?

Yes. Elections are run by individual states, and it is not uncommon for candidates to appear on the ballot in some states but not others.

Technically, Trump is still allowed to be on the Colorado ballot until Jan. 4, 2024, because the state Supreme Court opted to stay its decision until then, pending an expected appeal to the US Supreme Court

Colorado’s Republican primary is slated for March 5, 2024, though the state GOP has said it will switch to a caucus system if the ballot ban is upheld.

Has the Insurrection Clause been invoked before?

Section 3 has been invoked on at least eight occasions since it went into effect, according to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, which helped bring the Colorado case against Trump.

Five of those actions were taken against former Confederates, one of whom — Zebulon Vance — was elected to the Senate from North Carolina after the Civil War and served in that post for 15 years.

A more recent case is of Socialist Rep. Victor Berger of Wisconsin, who was denied his House seat after his conviction under the Espionage Act in 1919 for opposing US involvement in World War I. His conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1921 and he was elected to Congress three more times.

Last year, a New Mexico judge removed County Commissioner Couy Griffin from office after he was found guilty of trespassing over his role in the Capitol riot.

How did the Trump campaign respond?

The Trump campaign is expected to appeal the controversial decision to the US Supreme Court.

It said in a statement it has “full confidence” that the US Supreme Court would quickly side with the ex-president and “finally put an end to these un-American lawsuits.”

Trump’s camp also blasted the decision as “undemocratic” and “completely flawed.”

The ex-president also lambasted the decision on his Truth Social platform Wednesday morning, calling it a “sad day in America” and saying, “What a shame for our country.”

Was Trump given a trial?

Justices on the high court held oral arguments earlier this month and read briefs from Trump’s lawyers.

Technically, Section 3 deals with one’s qualification to run for office, not whether they committed a crime.

Trump has not even been charged with fomenting a rebellion or insurrection, though allegations that he illegally sought to overturn the 2020 election underpin 17 of the 91 criminal counts he is facing.

He has yet to be convicted in any criminal case.

What would happen in an appeal?

It is unclear how the US Supreme Court would rule if it agrees to take the case, but it is dominated by a conservative majority — including three Trump appointees, some of whom are longtime skeptics of giving courts powers that are not specifically delineated in the Constitution.

But Chris Landau, a former law clerk for Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and the late Antonin Scalia, told Fox News Tuesday night that he is confident the Supreme Court would “take one look at” Colorado’s decision and overturn it.

What does this mean for the other states seeking to remove Trump from the ballot?

Voters and advocacy groups have also sued to block Trump from the ballots in more than a dozen states, but at least seven of them have failed.

Courts in New Hampshire and Florida have dismissed similar cases on procedural and jurisdictional grounds, with some rulings stating that courts do not have the power to unilaterally disqualify candidates.

In Michigan, the court of appeals decided last week that it would not stop Trump from appearing on the 2024 Republican primary ballot.

In Minnesota, the state Supreme Court also said the state party can put anyone on its primary ballot, but said petitioners could try again in the context of the general election.

Justices in other states are said to be examining what happens with the Colorado decision before making their decisions.

How could this affect the 2024 election?

Even if the US Supreme Court upholds the ruling, it could be inconsequential to the presidential election because Trump does not need to win Colorado and is not expected to win it in the general.

The state only offers 10 electoral votes of the 270 needed to secure the White House.

It tends to lean Democratic, with President Biden winning the state by more than 13 percentage points in 2020.

But experts say Tuesday’s ruling could help propel Trump back to the Oval Office by emboldening his supporters who have embraced his message that the criminal cases against him are unjustified.

Following the ruling, some of his supporters reiterated the claim, saying they are part of a plot to prevent him from once again winning the presidency.

“This is un-American, and Democrats are so afraid that President Trump will win on Nov. 5, 2024 that they are illegally attempting to take him off the ballot,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said in a statement.

Some of Trump’s 2024 rivals have also spoken out against the ruling.

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy pledged to remove himself from Colorado’s primary ballot in response, and called on other candidates to do the same, saying the court’s ruling is “what an actual attack on democracy looks like.”

Even former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a staunch Trump critic, spoke out against it.

“I don’t believe it’s good for our country if he’s precluded from the ballot by a court,” he told voters in New Hampshire.

With Post wires