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Colorado Supreme Court Thread

Link to the decision

I don't know to what extent there are established precedents for when a topic is worthy of a mega-thread, but this decision seems like a big deal to me with a lot to discuss, so I'm putting this thread here as a place for discussion. If nobody agrees then I guess they just won't comment.

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There is a clear and compelling need right now for clarity that only the Supreme Court can provide

Not quite only the supreme court—if they can get the votes, Congress can suspend the whole issue, in this and all future cases, as the amendment says as much.

This is beautiful in its simplicity, and the Right Thing To Do for the sake of America. But woe unto the Democratic senator or congressman who voted to remove Trump’s disability if Trump actually wins the 2024 election.

the Right Thing To Do for the sake of America

Why?

The reason why a Trump supporter would favor it is obvious, but what is the case for forgiveness from someone who thinks Trump is guilty?

For the sake of upholding due process

We're not talking about process; we're talking about Congress voting that Trump's insurrection is no long disqualifying, i.e. short circuiting the matter.

The chance of reciprocation is rather high. If you interpret it broadly, while allowing large amounts of leeway to any courts to strike people down, which seems likely to be what's needed in order to remove Trump, you'd probably also be able to do that to all sorts of other people. Republicans have already threatened to try to remove Biden from the ballots, and there's no reason to think that this wouldn't reach to other offices, if that all works. It would be far worse for maintaining trust in the institutions than the status quo, as bad as the status quo is.

It would be far worse for maintaining trust in the institutions than the status quo, as bad as the status quo is.

Worse for Trump supporters, maybe, but they're not the only ones with low institutional trust.

There's a procedural problem -- even someone that thinks Trump is guilty of at least something substantively illegal might not believe that a State can presume this without a full and fair trial on the merits.

True! Good point.

I'm slightly surprised no one has tried to call such a vote yet.

It seems very unlikely to get the required 2/3 vote in both houses. A substantial majority of the Senate voted to remove Trump for the same behavior only a couple of years ago, after all.

I agree it's unlikely to succeed. I'm just surprised no one has seen advantage in proposing it yet.

Probably, everyone is happy with the status quo. Even though it doesn't really make sense you can come up with a rationale why both Trump supporters and Trump detractors in Congress/Senate both don't want such a resolution. Trump detractors in the houses don't want it because their supporters would be unhappy they supported it (perhaps irrationally). Trump supporters in the houses don't want it because having the Colorado Supreme Court railroad Trump and then having the Supreme Court smack them down is good strategically. Maybe it would be good for Trump supporters if a vote was put forward, Trump supporters could support it but the vote still failed.

I know, I really hope it's going on behind the scenes.