BOISE, Idaho — The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that former President Donald Trump is disqualified from the state's presidential primary ballot for his actions in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Experts across the country agree, the ruling will certainly be appealed to the highest court.
“What constitutional scholars think is likely to happen is that the Supreme Court is going to have to weigh in one way or another on this," said Dr. Charlie Hunt, a politics expert at Boise State University. "Otherwise you're going to have sort of a mishmash of different states, you know, adjudicating different disputes."
Hunt's research includes Congress and the presidency. He agrees the move by the Colorado court is major, but questions where it will go.
“I'm dubious about whether or not it's number one, the Supreme Court is going to go along with this, and number two, whether this could really happen in a bunch of other states in such a way that's going to have a major impact on the election,” Hunt said.
Colorado is not the first state to take on the legal question about Donald Trump. Idaho had a similar case filed in September by John Castro, a Republican presidential candidate. Castro filed suits in a collection of states trying to get Trump removed from the ballot.
The Idaho case was dismissed by Castro on Oct. 3, before any real action. KTVB reached out to Castro for his reason why – no response right away – likely related to Idaho moving to a presidential caucus. The Colorado decision may open the door again for more suits.
“Certainly in all 50 states, no matter how red or how blue, you're going to have folks on either side sort of ready to pounce on potential opportunities like this,” Hunt said.
Hunt touches on a major hypothetical, will solid Republican states like Idaho send a message by attempting to remove President Joe Biden from ballots? Similar to impeachment action in recent years.
“Donald Trump was impeached twice for two different kinds of offenses. You know, Joe Biden is under this impeachment inquiry now in the House of Representatives for a very different set of alleged offenses," Hunt said. "The concern then becomes, well, just every president is going to get impeached by the opposing party, and this is just a new tool in the toolbox."
This positions the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on a heavily-political question, something Hunt said the court is weary to do.
“The court doesn't want to be seen as just another political body like Congress or like the presidency. They say that in order for them to have power and have legitimacy, they need to kind of be above that," Hunt said. "So, they don't generally like weighing in on stuff like this. That's part of why I'm skeptical that they're going to come down with some monumental ruling, right, that Trump can't be on the ballot in any state and is disqualified as president."
So, how does this all impact Idaho?
“I think probably not a ton of impact on Idaho for now. But in terms of being kind of the starting gun for this legal decision that is probably going to come from the Supreme Court in the coming weeks, you know, it will have some bearing in terms of whether or not other folks can pursue a similar route of disqualifying President Trump here in Idaho or in other states,” Hunt said.
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