Former President Donald Trump told the Supreme Court on Thursday to reverse a ruling barring him from the primary ballot in Colorado and declare him eligible to seek and hold the office of the presidency, asking the justices to bring a “swift and decisive end” to dozens of 14th Amendment challenges against him.
Trump’s lawyers filed a brief outlining his legal justification for why he should remain on state primary ballots as he faces dozens of similar challenges, not just in the Centennial State. The Supreme Court is slated to hold oral arguments over the dispute on Feb. 8.
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“The court should put a swift and decisive end to these ballot-disqualification efforts, which threaten to disenfranchise tens of millions of Americans and which promise to unleash chaos and bedlam if other state courts and state officials follow Colorado’s lead and exclude the likely Republican presidential nominee from their ballots,” Trump’s counsel wrote in their brief.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Dec. 19 that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars “an officer of the United States” who “engaged in insurrection” from running for federal offices applied to Trump.
Trump’s brief comes as dozens of outside groups have filed similar amicus briefs voicing their arguments as to why he should not be removed from state primary ballots.
The former president’s lawyers argue that Trump did not do anything that “remotely qualifies” as engaging in insurrection, adding that the ballot challenges should not hold up under the high court’s watch.
“The fact remains President Trump did not commit or participate in the unlawful acts that occurred at the Capitol, and this Court cannot tolerate a regime that allows a candidate’s eligibility for office to hinge on a trial court’s assessment of dubious expert-witness testimony or claims that President Trump has powers of telepathy,” Trump’s lawyers wrote, noting that the justices need not weigh in on the issue of whether Trump engaged in insurrection.
Colorado’s top court reversed a lower court’s ruling in which a state judge said that Trump had engaged in insurrection by inciting the riot on Jan. 6 but that presidents are not subject to the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment because they are not an “officer of the United States.”
But in ruling to disqualify Trump from the ballot, the Colorado Supreme Court said its decision would remain on hold once Trump appealed to the nation’s highest court.
The magnitude of the unprecedented ruling in Colorado was only amplified days later, when Maine’s Democratic secretary of state concluded that Trump was ineligible to appear on the Republican primary ballot under the same measure of the 14th Amendment. That ruling has also been paused pending the Supreme Court’s review.
An eventual ruling from the nine justices will have sweeping ramifications for all 50 states, a point that was raised on Thursday by Michigan Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who filed an amicus brief urging the need for a clear ruling on the matter. Michigan also had a similar lawsuit against Trump’s eligibility last year, and while it failed in relation to the primary ballot question, a court said it could be revived for the general election in November.
The high court’s docket has seen dozens of other briefs filed in the case, including one on Thursday that was backed by 179 Republican members of Congress.
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The former president’s attorneys and the Republican lawmakers both stressed in their brief that the insurrection clause cannot be executed without additional legislation from Congress, and both warned of a potential slippery slope that could see other states wipe Trump off the ballot ahead of Election Day.
Trump’s Colorado ballot challenge stemmed from six voters who were supported by the left-leaning watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Supporters of that effort have been given a Jan. 31 deadline to file their respective briefs to the high court.