ACLJ in Court Today as Colorado Election Trial Begins

The ACLJ is in court today in Colorado, fighting for your right to vote for the candidate of your choice as the radical Left tries to twist the 14th Amendment to keep President Donald Trump off the 2024 primary ballots.

The AP reports:

Efforts to use the U.S. Constitution’s “insurrection” clause to bar former President Donald Trump from running for the White House again entered a new phase Monday in a hearing focused on whether the Jan. 6 Capitol attack meets the Constitution’s definition of the word and whether Trump’s role meets the threshold for being barred.

The Colorado hearing is the first of two states’ lawsuits that could end up reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. Monday’s testimony began with details about the 2021 assault that was intended to halt certification of Joe Biden’s election win.

Attorney Eric Olson, representing a group of Colorado voters seeking to keep Trump off the ballot, recounted Trump’s violent rhetoric and encouraging of a crowd that came within “40 feet” of the vice president when they stormed the Capitol. He said Trump “summoned and organized the mob.”

Of course, there’s one big problem with the leftist lawyer saying that Trump “summoned and organized the mob” – Trump was neither charged nor found guilty of insurrection in court. Rather, talk of insurrection stems from the media, which means such conversation and “scholarly” debate about Trump’s being disqualified from state primary ballots is ridiculous.

ACLJ Senior Counsel and Director of Policy Harry Hutchison weighed in on the Left’s argument:

The “scholarly debate” has been influenced by . . . the political persuasions of the academics. So many academics – even those academics who label themselves as conservative – many of them oppose the candidacy of Donald J. Trump. And so they’ve hit upon this novel idea of utilizing a constitutional provision, which was essentially adopted right after the Civil War, to basically disqualify Donald Trump. And I will read some of the relevant language: A person is disqualified who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the [United States], or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. In order to be an enemy of'the United States, you need to be able to find that there was indeed an active war. There was never a war during Donald Trump’s presidency or . . . an insurrection or rebellion.

Many prominent liberals believe they possess the unilateral authority to decide whom Americans get to vote for. And they have decided that Donald Trump cannot run for office. But the Constitution doesn’t delegate such authority. The right to choose candidates is not the authority of the Colorado Secretary of State, the Colorado Attorney General, or elite law professors – the Colorado GOP has the constitutional authority to decide who will be listed on the state’s primary ballots to represent the Republican Party and its values.

The radical Left is merely grasping for straws to do whatever it can to keep Donald Trump from running for President. The ACLJ will not allow such an egregious violation of the Constitution to deny your right to vote for the candidate of your choice. We have five lawyers right now in Colorado representing the people of Colorado to ensure they can vote for whoever they wish.

I believe the deciding ruling on this voting rights issue will take place at the Supreme Court. As many as a dozen states have ongoing litigation trying to deny voters the right to vote for their preferred candidates. Many of the lawsuits have been dismissed or withdrawn already. The Supreme Court will likely have to put an end to this nonsense that’s an obvious violation of the Constitution.

We can’t win this important battle to stop the radical Left’s insidious plot to disqualify President Trump from the ballot without your help. Become an ACLJ Champion, i.e., a monthly donor, to fund our fight to protect election integrity and voting rights. Sign up here to become an ACLJ Champion.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast fully analyzed our ongoing litigation in Colorado, Iran’s growing boldness amid the turbulence in the Middle East, a major ACLJ religious liberty victory, and our continuing defense of Israel at the U.N. Tristan Leavitt of Empower Oversight joined the broadcast to give an update in FBI whistleblower Special Agent Marcus Allen’s case. And tomorrow is a major court deadline as we defend Special Agent Garret O’Boyle from the unlawful retaliation of the FBI.

Watch the full broadcast below: