The Colorado Supreme Court’s Tuesday decision to disqualify former President Trump from the state primary ballot has come under fire from Republicans who have claimed it is a political move against the former president.
But former federal judge Michael Luttig fired back at those criticisms in an MSNBC interview Saturday, saying it is really the Constitution that could keep Trump off the ballot, not any political force.
“It is a natural and expected reaction by all Americans” to think in terms of politics, Luttig said, “but upon thinking about it seriously, I think it’s crystal clear.”
“It will be crystal clear to the American public that it’s the Constitution of the United States that’s disqualifying the former president from higher office, if he is to be disqualified,” he continued. “It’s not President Joe Biden. It’s not the Democrats. It’s not the anti-Trumpers.”
The Colorado Supreme Court determined that Trump was responsible for the Jan. 6 Capitol riots and should be disqualified from the ballot via the 14th Amendment.
Luttig praised the ruling, saying the court was smart to use a limited definition of “insurrection” and a commonsense interpretation that the presidency is considered an “office” of the U.S.
Those two points are likely to be at the center of an expected Supreme Court appeal. Trump attorneys argued in the Colorado case that the 14th Amendment does not apply to the presidency.
Luttig said it would be “impossible” for the Supreme Court to interpret the 14th Amendment any differently than the Colorado court.
“This is not politics. This is the Constitution of the United States,” he said. “And [the case] poses for the Supreme Court of the United States a pure question of constitutional law. The Supreme Court of the United States is never to consider extrajudicial factors or considerations, such as partisan politics, or even politics writ large.”