Yes, Trump should be removed from the ballot

The officials in Colorado and Maine who have ruled that Donald Trump should be removed from their state ballots because of the former president’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol have done the right, courageous thing. They deserve praise for aggressively defending American democracy from Trump, which far too many others — including the Justice Department under President Biden — have failed to do.

Even some on the left have criticized the decisions to bar Trump from appearing on Republican primary ballots, describing them as “undemocratic” and an abuse of the 14th Amendment, which Colorado and Maine officials cited in the decisions. The amendment bars people from holding office who have “previously taken an oath … to support the Constitution of the United States” and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion.”