Supreme Court to hear Trump appeal
Justices will review ruling by Colorado court barring him from state ballot
The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear Donald Trump’s appeal of a ruling by Colorado’s highest court that would keep him off the presidential primary ballot in the western state.
The conservative-majority Supreme Court, which includes three justices appointed by the former president, said it would hear oral arguments in the highstakes election case on February 8.
The Colorado Supreme Court barred Trump last month from appearing on the Republican presidential primary ballot in the state because of his role in the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol by his supporters.
Lawyers for Trump, the front runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, urged the US Supreme Court last week to hear the case and “summarily reverse the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling”.
They said the Colorado ruling, “if allowed to stand, will mark the first time in the history of the United States that the judiciary has prevented voters from casting ballots for the leading major-party presidential candidate”.
“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,” they added.
Trump has also lodged an appeal against a ruling by the top election official in Maine that would keep him off the primary ballot in the northeastern state.
His lawyers urged the Maine Superior Court to reject the ruling by Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat. They called her a “biased decision-maker” who “acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner”.
The Colorado Supreme Court and Maine secretary of state both ruled that Trump was ineligible to appear on the primary ballot because of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.
Section Three of the 14th Amendment bars people from holding public office if they engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” after once pledging to support and defend the Constitution.
The amendment, ratified in 1868 after the US civil war, was aimed at preventing supporters of the slaveholding Confederacy from being elected to Congress or from holding federal positions.
Similar 14th Amendment challenges to Trump’s eligibility have been filed in other states. Courts in Minnesota and Michigan ruled Trump should stay on the ballot in those states.
Separately, the twice-impeached former president is scheduled to go on trial in Washington in March for conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election won by Joe Biden.
He also faces racketeering charges in Georgia for allegedly conspiring to upend the election results in the southern state.
Maine and Colorado hold their presidential nominating contests on March 5 – also known as “Super Tuesday” – when voters in more than a dozen states, including California and Texas, go to the polls.