Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold Expresses ‘Disappointment’ With Trump Supreme Court Victory

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold speaks during a committee meeting in Baton Rouge, La. on July 8, 2022. Matthew Hinton/AP Photo

Colorado’s Secretary of State, Jena Griswold, says she is disappointed with the Supreme Court’s 9-0 decision allowing former President Donald Trump to appear on the Colorado ballot in the upcoming Super Tuesday caucuses.

In a recent decision, the Supreme Court ruled President Trump couldn’t be removed from the ballot by individual states, overturning a Colorado Court’s decision that found him ineligible as a candidate and disqualified from the state ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. That part of the Amendment disqualifies people from holding office, civil or military, if they have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion.”

In a March 4 MSNBC interview posted to her X account, Ms. Griswold said her larger reaction to the news has been one of “disappointment.”

“I do believe that states should be able under our constitution to bar oath-breaking insurrectionists,” she said.

“Ultimately, this decision leaves open or leaves open the door for Congress to act to pass authorizing legislation, but we know that Congress is a nearly non-functioning body. So ultimately, it will be up to the American voters to save our democracy in November.”

According to a press release from Ms. Griswold’s office, a lawsuit was filed by voters on Sept. 6, 2023, seeking to bar President Trump from the Colorado ballot under the provisions as per Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. They cited President Trump’s alleged role in riling up protestors, which they claim led to the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the Capitol, as evidence of engaging in insurrection.

A Dec. 19, 2023, ruling in the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that President Trump did engage in insurrection, and those actions disqualified him from the presidential primary ballot in Colorado.

However, it also ordered President Trump to be placed on the ballot during his appeal to the United States Supreme Court, which was ultimately successful.

The Supreme Court has ruled states can’t enforce Section 3 for national candidates but that “the Constitution empowers Congress to prescribe how those determinations should be made.”

Ms. Griswold said she hoped Congress could pursue insurrection charges against the former president. She had previously urged the Supreme Court to keep President Trump off the ballot so “votes are not wasted on ineligible candidates.”

Despite her opposition to the recent Supreme Court ruling, Ms. Griswold said in her post on social media platform X that she was “glad to have a ruling from the Court” because voters now have clarity that “Donald Trump is eligible to appear on the ballot ahead of Super Tuesday.”

At the same time, she accused the Supreme Court of having “some pretty big issues” around unreported gifts and alleged bribery and accused them of stripping “Americans of our basic human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

“With that said, we live in a country of rule of law. We have to respect the court’s decisions while disagreeing with them,” Ms. Griswold said.

“And honestly, I think that’s something that MAGA Republicans could take a lesson from,” she added.