EXCLUSIVE — Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will file an amicus brief on Wednesday to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing against the decision by the Colorado Supreme Court to keep former President Donald Trump off the ballot in November’s presidential primary election.
Filed on behalf of Ramaswamy by his attorneys, he argued the efforts from Trump’s political adversaries to remove him from state ballots are driven by a fear that “they cannot beat him in a free and fair election.” In a filing first obtained by the Washington Examiner, Ramaswamy warned that affirming the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision would create a path for future partisan efforts against not only Trump, but other leading candidates as well.
“For secretaries of state and state supreme court justices, the path to national notoriety will be illuminated: To enhance your credibility among co-partisans, simply concoct a reason to declare a disfavored presidential candidate of the opposing party ineligible to run for office,” the brief said.
The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether Trump can be barred from Colorado’s Republican primary ballot — a case that could shape the 2024 landscape as dozens of states have similar pending lawsuits against the former president, using his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as reasoning.
In a Dec. 19 decision Ramaswamy called “un-American, unconstitutional, and unprecedented,” the Colorado Supreme Court declared Trump ineligible to appear on the state ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause that prevents people who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office — marking the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate. Trump appealed the decision, and Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold announced he’ll appear on the state ballot as a result of the Supreme Court taking on the case.
Ramaswamy challenged the use of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to remove Trump from state ballots, arguing Trump is not an “officer of the United States” under the context of the clause. While the Constitution characterizes the presidency as an “office,” it does not describe the president as an “officer.” He claims Section 3 does not apply to a former president who hasn’t taken oaths for other offices.
More than a week after Colorado’s decision, Maine’s Democratic Secretary of State Shenna Bellows disqualified Trump from appearing on the state’s primary ballot — becoming the second state to remove him based on the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause. Trump quickly filed an appeal to overturn the ruling in a Maine court.
Ramaswamy vowed to withdraw himself from the GOP primary ballots in both Maine and Colorado following the two decisions, and urged his fellow Republican White House hopefuls — Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who suspended his campaign Wednesday — to follow suit. When asked by Newsmax if he would follow Ramaswamy, DeSantis said no, adding, “that’s just playing into the Left.”
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While Trump leads Ramaswamy by 50-some points in national polls, the political newcomer has been floated as a possible vice president pick for the Republican front-runner. Appealing to Trump’s base, Ramaswamy has accused Democrats of trying to keep Trump from the White House, dismissing the indictments and ballot eligibility suits against the former president.
“The Framers of the 14th Amendment would be appalled to see this narrow provision — intended to bar former U.S. officials who switched to the Confederacy from seeking public office — being weaponized by a sitting President and his political allies to prevent a former President from seeking reelection,” Ramaswamy said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “Our country is becoming unrecognizable to our Founding Fathers.”