For once, California is following Colorado's lead instead of the other way around; this time, it's on the Trump/14th Amendment issue. California's Lieutenant Governor, Eleni Kounalakis, has sent a memo to the California Secretary of State, Shirley Weber, seeking to have Donald Trump removed from California's primary ballot. 

NEW: California’s Lieutenant Gov. @EleniForCA urges Secretary of State to explore legal options to remove former President Trump from California’s primary election ballot. pic.twitter.com/KUEYqtdH8x

— Ashley Zavala (@ZavalaA) December 20, 2023

There are many things wrong with this memo, and sadly, many of them are things that one would assume an elected official would know better than to lean on in an argument — but you know what happens when we assume.

The memo states in part:

Specifically, the Colorado Supreme Court held in Anderson v. Griswold (2023 CO 63) that Trump's insurrection disqualifies him under section three of the Fourteenth Amendment to stand for presidential re-election. Because the candidate is ineligible, the court ruled, it would be a "wrongful act" for the Colorado Secretary of State to list him as a candidate on that state's presidential primary ballot.

That's wrong. It's so wrong it's not even in the same time zone as right. The entire argument here is based on nothing more than raw assertion: "Donald Trump is guilty of insurrection because of course he is."

Here is Section 3 of the 14th Amendment in its entirety:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

It seems pretty clear, and here's what the Colorado Supreme Court and Lieutenant Governor Kounalakis get wrong: Donald Trump has been neither indicted for nor convicted of insurrection under 18 U.S. Code § 2383 -  Rebellion or insurrection. Presumption of innocence (Taylor v. Kentucky, among others) is still supposed to be a legal principle in the United States; under that principle, Trump cannot be presumed to be disqualified until he is convicted under U.S.C 2383.

And let's be candid: That's not going to happen. The California Lieutenant Governor, in her irrational zeal to "get Trump," is casting the Constitution and a time-honored legal principle, that of the presumption of innocence, to the winds.

The Lt. Governor continues:

Furthermore, Colorado's Supreme Court cites conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch to make their case, stating the following, "As then-Judge Gorsuch recognized in Hassan, it is 'a state's legitimate interest in protecting the integrity and practical functioning of the political process' that 'permits it to exclude from the ballot candidates who are constitutionally prohibited from assuming office.'"

Under the Constitution, under case law, as noted above, under the legal principle of "innocent until proven guilty," Donald Trump is not constitutionally prohibited from holding office. This entire argument is based not on a conviction or even an indictment, but rather merely the assertion of "Trump's insurrection." This is banana-republic logic. It is an obscenity to the rule of law and a precedent that, if not stamped out now, poses an incredible danger to our electoral process and the Republic.