Ep020 - Colorado says "no" to Trump being on the ballot

I don't normally talk about things as fresh as the news that the Colorado State Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump can't be on the Republican presidential primary ballot, but this seems consequential enough to do so. To quickly catch you up, the Colorado court is saying that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment disqualifies Trump from holding elected office again because he took part in an insurrection on January 6th, 2021. Obviously, there are a lot of arguments about if January 6th was an insurrection definitionally, as well as if Trump directly took part in it. I've seen convincing arguments for both sides of if Trump is allowed to serve based on the 14th amendment, and I don't get into the weeds with them here because I'm not a lawyer. But I do get into how I don't like that the Colorado court will inevitably put the Supreme Court in the position to have to decide this quickly - and in general I don't like courts deciding things that could otherwise be taken care of via, ya know, elections. To preemptively remove Donald Trump from the ballot seems wrong unless they have an absolutely airtight case they can make to the American people explaining how the law left them no other choice. A 4-3 decision at the Colorado Supreme Court hardly seems like a slam dunk, though. My concern is the courts are already under false attack as being "illegitimate" by the Left, and by Trump, while simultaneously being sometimes the singular thing holding democracy together, it seems. The courts are who struck down all of Trump's attempted election fraud claims, the courts are the ones striking down Biden's illegal student loan forgiveness schemes. But both sides cry foul when they don't get their way (even when Trump or Biden's teams know what they're doing is probably illegal anyway, but punt to the court so they don't have to be "the bad guys"). I worry about where it will lead us, and I think this is just one more crazy event in the lead up to the 2024 general election. 01:28 The Colorado Supreme Court says Trump can't be on the ballot 02:56 Should courts make the decision? 06:30 is Trump disqualified from being president again via the 14th amendment? 11:36 Is there merit to the decision? 14:43 The timing of the Colorado Supreme Court's decision is terrible 19:21 What's the history of the 14th amendment? 25:24 What happens now? Will the Supreme Court take the case?