A group of Colorado voters called on the Supreme Court on Friday to block former President Donald Trump from the state’s primary ballot, telling the justices in their brief that he is ineligible to run for the presidency for bringing a mob to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The Supreme Court will hold oral arguments over the landmark question of whether a post-Civil War provision of the Constitution disqualifies Trump from regaining the presidency on Feb. 8. The case will have sweeping impacts on the 2024 election, as Trump is widely considered the presumptive Republican nominee to challenge President Joe Biden in November.
The Colorado voters argued that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment is direct in its language that anyone who “engaged” in insurrection should be barred from holding a federal office, saying that the Colorado Supreme Court’s 4-3 decision on Dec. 19 was correct to find Trump did hold responsibility for the riot.
“We already saw the ‘bedlam’ Trump unleashed when he was on the ballot and lost. Section 3 is designed precisely to avoid giving oath-breaking insurrectionists like Trump the power to unleash such mayhem again,” four Republican and two unaffiliated Colorado voters behind the lawsuit, represented by lawyers for the left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, wrote in their brief.
“Nobody, not even a former president, is above the law,” the voters argued.
While the justices are being asked to answer whether Trump did indeed engage in insurrection, legal experts have said the high court could answer the question on narrower grounds.
Two states that count primary ballots on March 5, Colorado and Maine, have found Trump is ineligible to hold office under the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection” clause.
The Supreme Court of Colorado decided that Trump engaged in insurrection under “any definition” of the word, and Democratic Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said it was her “obligation” to uphold the Constitution and block Trump from the ballot days after the Colorado ruling.
Several other amicus briefs are likely to show up on the Supreme Court’s docket ahead of a Jan. 31 deadline for supporters of respondents to file their briefs. Any reply briefs for or against Trump can be filed by Feb. 5.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Trump’s lawyers filed their opening briefs earlier this month, saying that Trump called for a “peaceful and patriotic protest” on Jan. 6 and arguing that Section 3 doesn’t apply to the presidency because the president is not an officer of the United States, Trump did not take the type of oath required for the provision to disqualify him, and only Congress can enforce the measure.
The Supreme Court’s decision, which could come within weeks of the Feb. 8 oral arguments, will likely decide the fate of dozens of similar ballot challenges pending in lower courts, although other state Supreme Courts have outright rejected similar lawsuits.