Colorado Trump Case: Free Speech Concerns

Colorado Decision

All references to the Colorado Supreme Court decision are pulled from the ruling issued December 19, 2023: Case No. 23SA300.

Writing about the case, Jonathan Turley - constitutional law scholar and Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law at The George Washington University Law School - notes:

[The opinion] lacks any limiting principles. It places the nation on a slippery slope where red and blue states could now engage in tit-for-tat disqualifications. According to the Colorado Supreme Court, those decisions do not need to be based on the specific comments made by figures like Trump. Instead, it ruled, courts can now include any statements made before or after a speech to establish a 'true threat'.

As summarized by the Library of Congress:

The First Amendment states, 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.' The Supreme Court has cited three reasons why threats of violence are outside the First Amendment—protecting individuals from the fear of violence, from the disruption that fear engenders, and from the possibility that the threatened violence will occur'.

U.S. Supreme Court Appeal

On January 3, 2024, Trump appealed Colorado's decision to the United States Supreme Court.