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The United States Supreme Court on Friday granted President Donald Trump’s request to hear an appeal of a Colorado court ruling barring him from the state’s Republican primary ballot. The case, which could have a major impact on the 2024 presidential election, stems from a ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court on Dec. 19, 2021, in which the court ruled that Trump could not be on the primary ballot in the state due to language in the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution that prohibited engaging in insurrection, which included an attack by supporters of the former president on January 6, 2021.
The case was argued before the Supreme Court at an unusually fast pace. On Wednesday, Trump, the party’s presumptive nominee to take on Biden in the election on November 5, has filed his appeal. The court has said it will decide the case quickly, with oral arguments scheduled for February 8. The Republican primary in Colorado is set for March 5th. In Colorado, the state court ruled that Trump was not eligible for the presidency based on a constitutional provision prohibiting anyone who “has been or is likely to be, or has been known to be, engaged in, or has been associated with, insurrection or rebellion.”
The Supreme Court declined to hear the Colorado Republican Party’s separate appeal of a state court’s decision, leaving the case in the hands of the nation’s highest court, whose six-person conservative majority includes three appointees appointed by President Donald Trump. Trump’s spokesman Steven Cheung welcomed the court’s order to hear the case and characterized the disqualification attempts as part of a “well-funded campaign by radical left-wing activists who are determined to prevent President Trump from re-election in November, even if that means disenfranchising voters.”
“We look forward to the Supreme Court ruling on whether Donald Trump can run for president,” Noah Bookbinder, a spokesman for the challengers, said in a statement. “The people of Colorado and the country deserve clarity on whether a man who has engaged in insurrection can run for the highest office in the country.” Grimswold, the Colorado secretary of state, said, “We look forward to our case being heard by the Supreme Court and the Constitution being upheld.” The disqualification drive has been criticized by many Republicans as election interference. Proponents of disqualification say holding Trump accountable for an insurrection is in line with democratic principles. Trump faces criminal charges in connection with his efforts to undo his 2020 electoral loss to Biden. He has also appealed a decision by Maine’s top election official to exclude him from the state’s primary ballot based on the same constitutional provision in Colorado.
HIGHLIGHTS OF SUPREME JURISDICTION
The Colorado case could complicate Trump’s chances of winning back the presidency, but it also has far-reaching consequences for the justices. Because the case is so political, they risk appearing as party hacks, regardless of their political leanings. Their decision will shape a larger effort to exclude Trump from other state electoral votes. Colorado and Maine lean Democratic, and non-partisan political analysts say they are unlikely to support a Republican presidential nominee in 2020. But there are other efforts underway in states like Michigan, which could affect the outcome of the election.
The Colorado ruling was the first time Section 3, also known as the “deregulation clause,” was used to disqualify a presidential candidate. Section 3 prohibits the holding of office by anyone who “takes an oath to support the United States Constitution” and then “engages in or aids or abetted in the conduct of a riot or mutiny against the United States, or in aiding or abetting the enemies of the Union.” The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1865 after Southern states that permitted slavery rebelled against the Union in an effort to secede. Trump’s lawyers have argued that Section 3 doesn’t apply to presidents, that it’s reserved to Congress, and that he didn’t participate in a riot.
The Colorado court’s ruling marked “the first time the courts have prohibited voters from voting for a major-party candidate,” according to Trump’s appeal. But the Republican and independent voters who filed a lawsuit to have Trump disqualified said in a filing Thursday that the lower court found that Trump’s “deliberate mobilization, instigation, and encouragement” of an armed crowd to storm the Capitol met the legal standard in Section 3: “This attack constitutes an ‘insurrection’ against the Constitution.” Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol on Saturday in an effort to stop Congress from confirming Biden’s election victory. Before the attack, Trump gave an inflammatory speech in which he repeated his false claims about “massive fraud” in the election. On Friday, Biden referred to Trump as a “hostile force” in a speech he gave in Pennsylvania on the eve of the anniversary of the Capitol riot.