The Supreme Court will decide whether former President Donald Trump can be kept off state presidential ballots after the Colorado Supreme Court found he had violated the Constitution’s so-called “Insurrection Clause.”
In a brief order Friday evening, the high court announced it will hear arguments Feb. 8 in the 77-year-old’s challenge to the Centennial State ruling, which temporarily removed from the state’s March 5 Republican primary ballot.
With voters already casting ballots in primaries and caucuses across the country by the time the case is heard, a decision is likely to follow quickly.
The Colorado decision, handed down Dec. 19, had cited Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot as proof that he violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars those who have violated their oath of office and “engaged in insurrection” from holding high office again.
In an appeal filed Wednesday, Trump’s attorneys had argued that “[i]n our system of ‘government of the people, by the people, [and] for the people,’ Colorado’s ruling is not and cannot be correct.”
“The question of eligibility to serve as President of the United States is properly reserved for Congress, not the state courts, to consider and decide,” the filing added.
The Supreme Court will hear former President Donald Trump’s challenge to his Colorado ballot removal next month. POOL/AFP via Getty Images“By considering the question of President Trump’s eligibility and barring him from the ballot, the Colorado Supreme Court arrogated Congress’ authority.”
The former president’s legal team argued for the Colorado decision to be reversed on three grounds: First, that the presidency was not among the offices covered by Section 3; second, that the Colorado Supreme Court had wrongly described the 45th president as having “engaged” in that day’s violence; and third, that the court violated the Constitution by intervening in the matter at all.
The Colorado Supreme Court stayed its own ruling pending Trump’s appeal, and state Secretary of State Jena Griswold confirmed Dec. 28 that Trump would remain on the 2024 primary ballot unless the US Supreme Court affirmed the state court’s decision.
The Colorado decision, handed down Dec. 19, had cited Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot as proof that he violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. AFP via Getty ImagesThe original suit to keep Trump off the Colorado ballot was brought by a group of voters under the auspices of the liberal group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
“This case is of utmost national importance,” lawyers for the Colorado plaintiffs told the Supreme Court. “And given the upcoming presidential primary schedule, there is no time to wait for the issues to percolate further. The Court should resolve this case on an expedited timetable, so that voters in Colorado and elsewhere will know whether Trump is indeed constitutionally ineligible when they cast their primary ballots.”
Maine’s Democratic secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, separately disqualified Trump from her state’s ballot Dec. 28, finding that the Capitol riot, “occurred at the behest of, and with the knowledge and support of, the outgoing President.”
![In their appeal filed Wednesday, Trump’s attorneys had argued that “[i]n our system of ‘government of the people, by the people, [and] for the people,’ Colorado’s ruling is not and cannot be correct.” AP](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/u-s-supreme-court-photographed-74445395.jpg?w=1024)
In their appeal filed Wednesday, Trump’s attorneys had argued that “[i]n our system of ‘government of the people, by the people, [and] for the people,’ Colorado’s ruling is not and cannot be correct.” APThe former president is separately appealing Bellows’ decision in Maine state court.
Other challenges to Trump’s ballot eligibility — heard in states including Arizona, Florida,Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Virginia, and West Virginia — have been turned aside by state and federal judges.
“We welcome a fair hearing at the Supreme Court to argue against the bad-faith, election-interfering, voter-suppressing, Democrat-backed and Biden-led, 14th Amendment abusing decision to remove President Trump’s name from the 2024 ballot in the state of Colorado,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. “The so-called ‘ballot-challenge cases’ are all part of a well-funded effort by left-wing, political activists hell-bent on stopping the lawful reelection of President Trump this November, even if it means disenfranchising voters.
“President Trump is dominating the polls, and the Biden presidency has failed all Americans,” Cheung added. “We are confident that the fair-minded Supreme Court will unanimously affirm the civil rights of President Trump, and the voting rights of all Americans in a ruling that will squash all of the remaining ballot challenge hoaxes once and for all.”
The Supreme Court has never before ruled on a case involving Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which has been invoked at least eight times since it was enacted in 1868.
Five of those actions were taken against former Confederates, one of whom — Zebulon Vance — was elected to the Senate from North Carolina after the Civil War and served in that post for 15 years.
In September 2022, a New Mexico judge removed Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin from office after he was found guilty of trespassing in connection with the Capitol riot.
With Post wires
