Trump critics appeal Colorado ruling that said ‘insurrectionist ban’ doesn’t apply to presidents

The group trying to remove Donald Trump from the Colorado ballot based on the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban” has filed an appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court, hoping to overturn a lower-court ruling that said the ban doesn’t apply to presidents.

The appeal, which was filed by Republican and independent voters who brought the lawsuit in coordination with a liberal watchdog group, was widely expected. Many experts believe the case will eventually reach the US Supreme Court, in some fashion.

Colorado District Court Judge Sarah Wallace issued a stunning 102-page decision Friday, that found Trump “engaged in an insurrection” on January 6, 2021, but concluded that the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban” doesn’t apply to presidents, based on the text of the amendment, which was ratified in 1868 in the wake of the Civil War.

It says American officials who take an oath to support the Constitution are banned from future office if they “engaged in insurrection.” The provision explicitly bans insurrectionists from serving as US senators, representatives and even presidential electors – but it does not say anything about the presidency. It says it covers “any office, civil or military, under the United States,” and Wallace ruled that this does not include the office of the presidency.

That key finding is what the anti-Trump challengers hope the Colorado Supreme Court will overturn.

“No court should adopt an interpretation of the Constitution that has such absurd results,” the challengers wrote in their appeal filing. “Fortunately, in this case, the text and history all comport with the common-sense outcome. Section 3 does not disqualify oath-breaking insurrectionists from nearly all public offices except the highest one, nor does it give a unique free pass to insurrectionist Presidents.”

All seven justices…