We were all outraged at the absurd 4-3 ruling by the Colorado State Supreme Court earlier this week, which deemed Trump ineligible to run for the presidency, thereby unable to appear on the state’s ballot. According to the four justices who voted in the majority, Trump is ineligible to be president under the 14th Amendment, even though he’s never been convicted of sedition or participating in an insurrection. Heck, he’s never even been tried for the crime—for obvious reasons—but the court didn’t seem to think that mattered.
Conservatives are justifiably angry over this blatant “attack on our democracy” by a leftist court, and some have come up with their own remedy: boot Biden off the ballot in other states.
"What is absolutely wild about this opinion from the Colorado Supreme Court is that it contains no limiting principle,” former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis wrote on X/Twitter. "Republicans should immediately file suit in Colorado to remove Biden from the ballot, citing his failure to secure the border and allowing an invasion falls within the Court’s broad definition of “engaging in insurrection.”
This idea is actually picking up steam in other states.
“Seeing what happened in Colorado makes me think—except we believe in democracy in Texas—maybe we should take Joe Biden off the ballot in Texas for allowing 8 million people to cross the border since he’s been president, disrupting our state far more than anything anyone else has done in recent history,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham Tuesday night.
That comment may have been in jest, but according to a report from Breitbart, Republican lawmakers in Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania are drafting legislation to remove Biden from their respective state ballots.
Related: Here’s What You Should Know About the Four Justices Who Deemed Trump Ineligible to Run for President
“We are joining forces to introduce legislation to REMOVE Joe Biden from the ballot in Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania,” lawmakers from the three states told Breitbart News. “The absurdity of radical Democrat judges removing Donald Trump from the ballot in Colorado will be a stain on the American political system for decades. By their very own interpretation of the law, Joe Biden is 100% not eligible to run for political office.”
“Democrats’ insane justification to remove Trump can just as easily be applied to Joe Biden for his ‘insurrection’ at the southern border and his alleged corrupt family business dealings with China,” they continued.
“Colorado radicals just changed the game and we are not going to sit quietly while they destroy our Republic. To be clear, our objective is to showcase the absurdity of Colorado’s decision and allow ALL candidates to be on the ballot in all states,” they wrote. “To do that, we must fight back as Republicans against the communists currently running our great country.”
Look, everything they said here is absolutely true, and, generally speaking, I think it’s important for the left to get the message that conservatives are going to play by the same rules they do and are willing to fight. That said, I’m not convinced this is the right way to do it. Even if this effort is just a means to demonstrate the absurdity of the Colorado ruling without any actual expectation that it will result in Biden being removed from the ballot in Georgia, Arizona, or Pennsylvania, I think it’s the wrong way.
We already know that the ruling will be taken up by the Supreme Court, and experts on both sides of the aisle believe it will be promptly overturned. I think the better way to handle this is to let that process play out. This revenge legislation undermines conservative criticisms of the anti-democratic efforts to remove Trump from the ballot in various states and also gives leftists ammunition to accuse Republicans of pursuing impeachment against Biden merely to avenge Trump.
