Former US president Donald Trump asked the US Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that would bar him from the presidential ballot in Colorado, according to a person familiar with the filing, setting up a historic showdown over contentions that he forfeited his right to run again by inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, US Capitol riot.
Trump is appealing a Colorado Supreme Court decision that declared him ineligible to reclaim the White House because of his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. The decision was the first ever to invoke the US constitution’s insurrection clause against a former president.
The appeal marks a pivotal moment in the unprecedented national drama over Trump’s candidacy. A Supreme Court decision to grant review and back Trump could end efforts around the country to remove him from the ballot. A ruling against Trump could fuel that drive and raise new questions about the viability of his candidacy.
Photo: Reuters
Colorado is one of two states where Trump has been declared ineligible. Maine’s top election official invoked similar reasoning on Thursday last week to block him from the primary ballot there. Other states, including California on Thursday last week, have said the ex-president can run.
Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, has faced dozens of lawsuits across the country claiming he is ineligible for another term in the White House under section 3 of the 14th amendment. That provision, enacted shortly after the US Civil War, says that a person who took an oath to support the US constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” is ineligible to hold office again.
Trump argued in his appeal that the Colorado court made a series of errors in its Dec. 19 ruling.
“It was not ‘insurrection’ and President Trump in no way ‘engaged’ in ‘insurrection,’” Trump’s lawyers argued.
Trump’s filing follows an appeal filed on Wednesday last week by the Colorado Republican Party. The voters suing Trump and the Colorado secretary of state have both urged the court to take up the case.
In its 4-3 decision, the Colorado court said Trump engaged in “overt, voluntary and direct participation” in an insurrection that culminated with the Capitol riot.
The majority pointed to Trump’s unsupported claims over the course of weeks that the election was stolen, his fiery Jan. 6 speech to a crowd that included armed people and his demands, even after rioters were storming the US Capitol, that then-US vice president Mike Pence refuse to certify the results.
“President Trump fully intended to — and did — aid or further the insurrectionists’ common unlawful purpose of preventing the peaceful transfer of power in this country,” the Colorado court said.
The seven-justice court is composed entirely of Democratic appointees.
The Colorado ruling will not take effect until the nation’s highest court resolves the matter one way or another. The state court directed Colorado’s secretary of state to keep Trump’s name on the presidential primary ballot in the meantime.
On Tuesday, Trump filed a lawsuit seeking to restore his name to Maine’s presidential primary ballot after the secretary of state disqualified him under the 14th amendment’s insurrection clause.
In addition to the Colorado case, the Supreme Court might have to resolve aspects of the four criminal cases against Trump. The court on Dec. 22 declined to immediately consider whether he is immune from charges stemming from his effort to reverse his defeat at the polls.
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