Skip to content

Friday, Mar. 28, 2025

Did the Colorado Supreme Court find Trump engaged in an insurrection? 

Por Jaijongkit, The Colorado Sun
yes

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled in December 2023 that Trump was ineligible to run for president in Colorado after finding he engaged in an insurrection — a decision that was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

The case involved a September 2023 lawsuit in which a group of Colorado voters sought to bar Trump from appearing on the state ballot, alleging he helped incite the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

The Colorado Supreme Court ultimately agreed, ruling 4-3 that Trump’s conduct violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, also known as the insurrection clause, disqualifying him from running. 

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the decision in March 2024, ruling unanimously that only Congress can disqualify candidates for federal office.

Trump later garnered 43% of the vote in Colorado while winning both the national popular vote and the electoral college, cementing his reelection.   

See a full discussion of this at The Colorado Sun

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

About fact briefs

Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

See all fact briefs

The Colorado Sun is a journalist-founded, award-winning and nonprofit news outlet based in Denver that strives to cover all of Colorado so that our state — our community — can better understand itself. In this way, we believe we can contribute to a more vibrant, informed and whole Colorado. We are committed to fact-based, in-depth and nonpartisan journalism. We cover everything from politics and culture to the outdoor industry and education. Our goal is to produce the best possible journalism. We do that with the help of you, our readers, and community backers. We launched on Sept. 10, 2018.

Learn More

Latest Fact Briefs

Be a Friend of facts

Help us fund more great fact briefs like this one.