Trump calls on Supreme Court to reverse Colorado ruling removing him from ballot
Kaelan Deese
Video Embed
Former President Donald Trump filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday asking the justices to reverse a decision by Colorado’s top court that would remove him from the state’s primary ballot if the nine-member bench allows that ruling to stand.
The Colorado Supreme Court, composed entirely of Democratic appointees, ruled 4-3 on Dec. 19 that Trump was ineligible to run for president under the 14th Amendment‘s insurrection clause. The expected appeal, which a source told the Washington Examiner was filed on Wednesday, comes after the state’s Republican Party asked the nation’s highest court to overturn the decision last week.
HOW THE SUPREME COURT COULD DECIDE THE FATE OF TRUMP’S 2024 BALLOT ACCESS
Both the Colorado Republican Party and the liberal group representing voters who sought Trump’s removal have urged the Supreme Court to move swiftly on the petition, stressing the importance of settling the matter as soon as possible to meet important deadlines to procure the state’s primary ballots.
Trump’s legal team also plans to appeal a decision by Maine’s Democratic secretary of state that bars him from the state’s primary ballot on the same grounds, though that will be appealed to the state’s appeals court first.
Both decisions have come with automatic holds to allow appeals to be considered. It’s not yet clear how the high court may rule on the ballot disqualification matter, as it has not ruled on the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause since the amendment was ratified in 1868.
Petitioners including Norma Anderson, who was also the former Republican majority leader of the Colorado House and Senate, succeeded in convincing the Colorado Supreme Court that Trump’s rhetoric prompted the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“The mob’s overriding purpose was to help keep Trump in office by preventing the constitutionally mandated counting of the electoral votes that had been cast in President Biden’s favor,” Anderson’s attorneys wrote in a brief that also surfaced on the Supreme Court’s docket Tuesday.
Anderson also cited that Trump supporters at the riot told police officers that “Trump sent them,” adding they “referenced war (including the Civil War), revolution, and stopping certification of the election.”
Other states, including Michigan and California, have turned down efforts to remove Trump from primary ballots. Most of the lawsuits have been filed by liberal litigation firms representing voters seeking to keep Trump from running; at least 30 states have seen such challenges filed in court.
Trump has decried the rulings against his ballot eligibility as a sign the nation is turning into a “banana republic.”
Republicans and some Democrats have been highly critical of the tactic of removing Trump from the primary ballot, with most critics arguing that voters should be the ones to decide whether Trump is the nominee to take on President Joe Biden in the November election.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
For now, the removal of Trump from primary ballots in Colorado and Maine, both of which could be overturned, aren’t likely to have an impact on his pursuit of the GOP nomination. Trump holds major leads in polls for the upcoming primary contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina; winning all three could secure his position.
This is a developing story and will be updated.