A long-shot bid to disqualify former President Donald Trump from appearing on Colorado’s 2024 ballots began in a Denver courtroom on Monday.
The case will test a rarely-used, Civil War-era provision of the U.S. Constitution that bars people who have engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” from holding federal office.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Scott Olson argued Trump assembled a violent mob at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 that tried to prevent the constitutional transfer of power.
“And we are here because Trump claims, after all that he has the right to be president again. But our Constitution and our shared charter of our nation says he cannot do so. And Colorado law says this court must ensure that only eligible candidates appear on our ballots.”
Trump faces similar lawsuits brought by advocacy groups in Michigan and Minnesota, but the Colorado case is the first to go to trial.
Trump is the leading Republican candidate for president in 2024 and has denied wrongdoing during the attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters who wanted to prevent Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s November 2020 presidential election win.
A lawyer for Trump, Scott Gesler, denied that Trump incited supporters to violence and said it would set a dangerous precedent to disqualify him.
“And frankly, they’re asking this court to be the first in the country ever to embrace a number of legal theories that have never been accepted by a court, state or federal.”
Many legal experts call the strategy a long shot. Even if the plaintiffs prevail, the final say would likely rest with a U.S. Supreme Court dominated by a 6-3 conservative majority that includes three Trump appointees.
The trial before a Denver judge is expected to last one week.
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