In a word, yes, they did err.
But it's not what you think.
Here's the gist of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution:
Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution forbids anyone who has taken an oath as an “officer of the United States” and then engaged in insurrection from holding office again.
Timothy Snyder
(By the way, the article cited above is the reason I wrote this. I wrote this after reading the first paragraph. I'll go back to it after I publish this to see what the rest said!)
This is law. It's not opinion. It's also not opinion that the President of the United States is NOT excepted from this law.
Nobody, and I mean nobody, believes that the POTUS is NOT an officer of the United States.
Let me say it again: Nobody believes that the POTUS is NOT an officer of the United States.
Additionally, NOBODY believes that the oath the POTUS takes is NOT substantively similar to what other officers of the United States take. Basically, it says the same thing. Read them here.
Bottom line: The POTUS' oath confers MORE responsibility to and ON the the POTUS than the oath for the commoners, you know, the Senators and Representatives of the United States Congress.
Everybody knows and believes this. Those who say they don't are lying.
Here's how you can tell: Imagine the Democratic POTUS doing exactly what Trump did leading up to and including January 6, 2021 and beyond. Republicans would be in the middle of another impeachment right now if this were a Democrat under so much strutiny.
So it's pretty well established that Donald Trump cannot hold the office of the President (or any other) ever again. FACT.
However, above, I said that the Colorado Supreme Court DID err when they ordered Trump to be taken off the primary ballot.
States get to run their own elections. They make their own rules. Insofar as they don't cross federal rules, regulations, and laws, they can decide on a candidate however they want.
I believe Colorado thinks that by putting Trump on the primary ballot, Colorado IS breaking the US Constitution, Section 3 of Amendment 14, to be exact.
Now, this may not be legal scholarly advice or consent (I am not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV), but I believe the presidential primaries are just traditional formalities.
For example, the Republicans (any party, actually) could choose somebody as their nominee other than the person who won the collective primaries.
Another example: Say Trump goes to prison as the GOP nominee. I hope we can agree right here and right now that a convicted felon should not be allowed to be President WHILE they are serving time.
The GOP most definitely would choose another person to put on the general election ballots in every state.
One last example: Let's say Trump IS on the general election ballots in every state. Let's say he wins the popular and electoral college vote.
My contention is that he's still forbidden to hold any US officer office. That's what the damned amendment says.
And if we can't take a plain read of a few words from the US Constitution, then I think we should just torch it.
We will have proven that we don't care about the Constitution, that we don't care about law and order.
THAT'S what allowing him to hold the highest office in the land will mean: We've given up on this grand, most successful-in-history experiment of democracy. Our republican will go down in flames.
I certainly hope the vast majority of people do not want this to happen.
