“There was no fair trial either,” he remarked.
“The decision to bar former President Donald J. Trump — by all accounts the current leading Republican presidential candidate (and reportedly the current leading overall presidential candidate) — from Colorado’s presidential primary ballot flies in the face of the due process doctrine,” Samour wrote. “Even if we are convinced that a candidate committed horrible acts in the past — dare I say, engaged in insurrection — there must be procedural due process before we can declare that individual disqualified from holding public office.”
“If President Trump committed a heinous act worthy of disqualification, he should be disqualified for the sake of protecting our hallowed democratic system, regardless of whether citizens may wish to vote for him in Colorado,” Samour explained. “But such a determination must follow the appropriate procedural avenues. Absent adequate due process, it is improper for our state to bar him from holding public office.”
The judge added that he fears this decision will bring about “potential chaos wrought by an imprudent, unconstitutional, and standardless system in which each state gets to adjudicate Section Three disqualification cases on an ad hoc basis.
“Surely, this enlargement of state power is antithetical to the framers’ intent,” he said.
Justice Maria Berkenkotter also provided a dissenting opinion.
She wrote that the “majority construes the court’s authority too broadly,” noting that it has “no discernible limits.”
Chief Justice Brian Boatright wrote that defining an “insurrection” is a complex issue in his dissenting opinion.
“Age, time previously served as president, and place of birth all parallel core qualification issues under Colorado’s election code,” he wrote. “Conversely, all these questions pale in comparison to the complexity of an action to disqualify a candidate for engaging in insurrection.”
“My opinion that this is an inadequate cause of action is dictated by the facts of this case, particularly the absence of a criminal conviction for an insurrection-related offense,” Boatright added.
