CAN A STATE SUPREME COURT DEPRIVE ITS CITIZENS OF THEIR RIGHT TO VOTE FOR THE CANDIDATE OF THEIR CHOICE FOR U.S. PRESIDENT ON A PRIMARY BALLOT?
DOES THE U.S. CONSTITUTION ALLOW A COURT TO MAKE THAT DECISION?
As you know four out of the seven judges on the Colorado Supreme Court have determined that former President Donald Trump engaged in an insurrection by his actions on January 6th, 2021 and therefore it is appropriate for the Secretary of State of Colorado to leave him off the Republican primary ballot in that election.
The Colorado Republican party has filed a petition called a Writ of Certiorari (review) in SCOTUS asking the Court to review that decision and determine whether it is consistent with the U.S. Constitution. Here are the pertinent parts of the petition.
It is one of the most important cases the Court has been asked to review because of the serious ramifications concerning whether a citizen has the right to vote for the candidate of their choice. It attacks the two-party system since it takes away the right of those in their party to choose who will be their candidate in the general election for president in the next election.
Here is what is presented in the petition filed with SCOTUS:
REASONS FOR GRANTING THE WRIT
For the first time in American history, a former President has been disqualified from the ballot, a political party has been denied the opportunity to put forward the presidential candidate of its choice, and the voters have been denied the ability to choose their Chief Executive through the electoral process. This unprecedented decision urgently merits this Court’s review to prevent “the potential chaos wrought by an imprudent, unconstitutional, and standardless system in which each state gets to adjudicate Section Three disqualification cases on an ad hoc basis. Surely, this enlargement of state power is antithetical to the framers’ intent.” Pet. App. 316a (Samour, J., dissenting). By excluding President Trump from the ballot, the Colorado Supreme Court engaged in an unprecedented disregard for the First Amendment right of political parties to select the candidates of their choice and a usurpation of the rights of the people to choose their elected officials.
A petition filed with SCOTUS requires that the petitioning party set out specifically the issues it wants the Court to decide. This is a very important part of the petition which the Court will not deviate from and sometimes decides whether there are enough on the Court willing to hear those issues.
The petition cites the provision of the U.S. Constitution in question in the case as:
Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment provides as follows:
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. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
U.S. CONST. amend. XIV, § 3.
The questions presented to be heard by the Court are:
QUESTIONS PRESENTED
The Supreme Court of Colorado held that states possess authority, regardless of the lack of congressional authorization, to determine that a presidential candidate is disqualified under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment and that former President Donald J. Trump is disqualified as an insurrectionist. The Questions Presented are:
1. Whether the President falls within the list of officials subject to the disqualification provision of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment?
2. Whether Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment is self-executing to the extent of allowing states to remove candidates from the ballot in the absence of any Congressional action authorizing such process?
3. Whether the denial to a political party of its ability to choose the candidate of its choice in a presidential primary and general election violates that party’s First Amendment Right of Association?
You will notice that nowhere in the petition is there any mention of the question being discussed in the media and by other pundits concerning what the words “insurrection” or “rebellion” mean or whether the person has to be charged and convicted of anything before the provision applies.
The issues are simply whether the provision of the Constitution applies to a former president by determining that he is an “officer,” whether there needed to be some Congressional legislative action before the provision takes effect because it is not self-executing, and whether taking away a political party’s right to choose its candidates violates the First Amendment’s right of association.
The Colorado Supreme Court has put its decision on hold until January 4th to see if SCOTUS will hear the case.
Let’s hope the Court doesn’t duck the issue this time and after review tells Colorado and us whether the insurrection clause of the Constitution can be used in this manner. Keep your fingers crossed.
To read the entire petition go to: Colorado-Republican-State-Central-Committee-v.-Anderson-Cert-Petition
Donald C Brockett, author -“The Tyrannical Rule Of The United States Supreme Court; How The Court Has Violated The Constitution”, available as an ebook on Barnes & Noble
Donald C. Brockett is a former Washington state attorney, who served 6 terms as Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney and is now retired after a total of 52 years between public and private practice.
During his time in the prosecutor’s office, he tried numerous cases in the District and Superior courts of Spokane County. For many years, he handled all appeals in the Washington State Supreme Court and later in that court and the newly created Court of Appeals for Division III. He has argued cases in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the US Supreme Court.
© 2024 Donald C Brockett Contact: donsbooks@proton.me
Published with permission of donaldbrockettauthor.com