George Washington University Law School Professor Jonathan Turley provides in his new editorial at The Messenger an informed rebuke of the Colorado Supreme Court’s Tuesday ruling barring the name of Donald Trump, the far ahead leader in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, from the Republican primary ballot in Colorado and even preventing the counting of write-in votes for him in the state. In reaching its decision, Turley assesses that “the Colorado Supreme Court steered off the constitutional map” and “put this country on one of the most dangerous paths in its history.”
Beginning his analysis, Turley writes:
The Colorado Supreme Court has issued an unsigned opinion, making history in the most chilling way possible. A divided court barred Donald Trump from appearing on the 2024 presidential ballot.
For months, advocates have been filing without success in various states, looking for some court to sign off on a dangerous, novel theory under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. They finally found four receptive jurists on one of the bluest state supreme courts in the land.
Even on a court composed entirely of justices appointed by Democratic governors, Colorado’s Supreme Court split 4-3 on the question. The majority admitted that this was a case “of first impression” and that there was “sparse” authority on the question. Yet, the lack of precedent or clarity did not deter these justices from making new law to block Trump from running. Indeed, the most controlling precedent appears to be what might be called the Wilde Doctrine.
In his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde wrote that “the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.” The four Colorado justices just ridded themselves of the ultimate temptation and, in so doing, put this country on one of the most dangerous paths in its history.
Continue reading Turley’s editorial here.