Colorado Forces a 14th Amendment Crisis to Get Trump

Donald Trump committed a grave offense against our constitutional system in the wake of the 2020 elections. Our editorials have been consistent on this ever since. In the absence of an unambiguous crime or a clear legal bar, there are two legitimate ways a democratic republic can bar the door to such a man: impeachment by Congress or the verdict of the voters. Trump has already been rejected by the voters once and impeached by the House twice. There were significant arguments for conviction in his second impeachment after January 6, and for declaring him ineligible to seek the office again. The Senate declined to do so.

Much of the past three years has been consumed by prosecutors, courts, and congressional committees attempting to finish Trump. The legal grounds for this have frequently been flimsy. The public legitimacy of removing Trump from the political process is not helped by bending the law. The job now belongs to the voters, who are rightly skeptical of partisans stripping them of that choice.