By Joan Biskupic, Kaitlan Collins and Devan Cole | CNN
Donald Trump has formally asked the US Supreme Court to overturn the Colorado state Supreme Court ruling that removed him from the state’s 2024 ballot under the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection clause,” according to sources familiar with the matter.
“This Court should grant certiorari to consider this question of paramount importance, summarily reverse the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling, and return the right to vote for their candidate of choice to the voters,” attorneys for the former president wrote in the filing.
Trump’s team is arguing that the “question of eligibility” for the presidency should be determined by Congress, not the states, and that the Colorado Supreme Court erred when it ruled that an insurrection occurred on January 6, 2021, and that Trump “engaged” in it.
The Supreme Court is facing mounting pressure to settle the question of whether Trump, the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, can be disqualified from holding public office, as state courts and election officials have come to differing conclusions across the country. The first contests of the 2024 primary begin in weeks.
The high court is separately involved in other matters that could impact the federal criminal case against the former president.
Trump’s appeal comes nearly a week after the Colorado GOP, which is also a party in the case, filed a separate appeal, and two weeks after the Colorado ruling came down. The ruling has been put on hold while appeals play out and Colorado’s top election official has already made clear that Trump’s name will be included on the state’s primary ballot when it’s certified on January 5 – unless the US Supreme Court says otherwise.
But it’s unlikely the high court would resolve the case as quickly as this week. If the justices do take up the case and conclude Trump is ineligible for public office, then any votes cast for him wouldn’t count. The state’s primary is set for Super Tuesday on March 5.
The stunning 4-3 decision issued by the Colorado Supreme Court last month said Trump is constitutionally ineligible to run in 2024 because the 14th Amendment’s ban on insurrectionists holding office covers his conduct on January 6, 2021.
“President Trump incited and encouraged the use of violence and lawless action to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power,” the Colorado justices wrote in the 134-page majority opinion.
Though the ruling from Colorado only applies to that state, a potential decision from the US Supreme Court could settle the matter for the entire nation. Courts in several other states have also reviewed challenges to Trump’s eligibility, though no such case made it as far as the one in Colorado.
Last week, Maine’s secretary of state removed Trump from that state’s 2024 primary ballot, and the former president’s team on Tuesday appealed that decision in state court.
And the Oregon Supreme Court could soon rule on a bid to remove Trump from that state’s primary and general election ballots because of his role in the January 6 insurrection.
A group of Republican and independent voters filed the Colorado lawsuit, in coordination with a liberal government watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
They told the Supreme Court on Tuesday they also want the Supreme Court to make the final decision.
“This Court’s settled precedent holds that the Constitution provides no right to confuse voters and clutter the ballot with candidates who are not eligible to hold the office they seek,” the voters wrote in the filing. They asked the justices to focus on two specific questions: whether Trump is disqualified from running for office and whether states are able to enforce the 14th Amendment’s clause absent federal legislation.
“Whether the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits a former President (and current presidential primary front-runner) who engaged in insurrection against the Constitution from holding office again is a question of paramount national importance,” they said in the filing. “Because 2024 presidential primary elections are imminent, there is no time or need to let these issues percolate further.”
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold similarly asked the justices Tuesday to answer whether Trump can be removed from the ballot and provided them with a timetable of impending election deadlines that her office is required to meet.