The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump is ineligible for the office of the presidency and can therefore be removed from the state’s primary ballot as the GOP candidate and as a write-in. As many have already noted, the decision is legally absurd and politically moronic. But the judges responsible for it don’t care about either the facts involved or the consequences that are sure to follow. Their only goal was to send a statement — and send a statement they have.

The legal reasoning behind the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision is spurious at best and sure to be thrown out by the Supreme Court upon appeal. To declare Trump disqualified, the judges had to decide that he was guilty of insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, a crime for which he has never even been charged. In other words, the state court is acting as the attorney, jurist, and judge for a federal case that has never been brought, based on an event that took place thousands of miles away from its jurisdiction. There is a reason no other judicial circuit, even those as heavily liberal as Colorado’s, has allowed this case to stand: It requires a total upending of the way our judicial system works.

The decision is a political disaster as well. For starters, the Colorado Supreme Court is not going to stop Trump from winning the GOP nomination or the general election by banning him from the state’s ballot since Colorado is a deeply blue state that Trump realistically would never win anyway. If anything, the court has guaranteed Trump victory in the primary and even helped him edge out President Joe Biden in the general. If the past four indictments against Trump prove anything, it’s that voters do not appreciate being told they cannot support or vote for someone the political establishment has deemed unworthy.

But again, the Colorado Supreme Court did not release this decision expecting it to withstand an appeal or move the needle in Biden’s favor. They released it because they had to make clear that the leftist efforts to punish Trump will not stop with the 44 federal charges, 47 state charges, and two civil cases against him. It’s a statement — nothing more, nothing less.

Jonathan Turley noted that one of the key problems with the court’s ruling is that it has no limiting principle. Indeed, that’s the very point. The Left is so determined to maintain power that it will bend and break the law, undermine our institutions, and do whatever else is necessary to prevent anyone from taking it away.

And that means this won’t end with Trump. The Left might have a particular hatred for the former president, but Republicans can be sure that whoever comes after him will be treated the same way. These are the new rules, and the GOP can either face this reality head-on with a willingness to fight or accept its status as the permanent minority party.