Colorado sec of state 'disappointed' with Supreme Court decision to preserve democracy in America

Following the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision to keep 2024 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump on the ballot, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said she was "disappointed" in the decision, calling Trump an "oath-breaking insurrectionist," a term used by justices in a concurring opinion on the case.

"I am disappointed in the US Supreme Court’s decision stripping states of the authority to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment for federal candidates. Colorado should be able to bar oath-breaking insurrections from our ballot," Griswold wrote.

In the justices' concurring opinion, written by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson, they wrote that "In this case, the Court must decide whether Colorado may keep a Presidential candidate off the ballot on the ground that he is an oathbreaking insurrectionist and thus disqualified from holding federal office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment."

"Allowing Colorado to do so would, we agree, create a chaotic-state-by-state patchwork, at odds with our Nation’s federalism principles. That is enough to resolve this case."

"Today, the majority goes beyond the necessities of this case to limit how Section 3 can bar an oathbreaking insurrectionist from becoming President. Although we agree that Colorado cannot enforce Section 3, we protest the majority’s effort to use this case to define the limits of federal enforcement of that provision. Because we would decide only the issue before us, we concur only in the judgment," the concurring opinion concluded.

In the opinion, the court wrote that "because the Constitution makes Congress, rather than the States, responsible for enforcing Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates, we reverse" the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling to keep Trump off the ballot.

Speaking with MSNBC after the decision, Griswold said, "My larger reaction is disappointment. I do believe that states should be able, under our Constitution, to bar oath-breaking insurrectionists. And ultimately this decision leads open or leaves open the door for Congress to act to pass authorizing legislation. But we know that Congress is a nearly nonfunctioning body. So ultimately, it will be up to the American voters to save our democracy in November."

In February, Griswold said in an interview that "States like Colorado believe that it is confusing and potentially suppressive to put a candidate on a ballot who cannot assume office."

"We kept Donald Trump off because he is disqualified, from our perspective, under the Constitution for being an oath-breaking insurrectionist."

Trump Ballot SCOTUS decision by Hannah Nightingale on Scribd