Former President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court Thursday to overturn a ruling in Colorado that barred him from 2024 election ballots, arguing that “chaos and bedlam” will ensue if other state courts follow suit.
Lawyers for the 77-year-old Republican presidential primary front-runner slammed the Colorado Supreme Court’s December ruling, which disqualified Trump from state ballots under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment for engaging in an “insurrection,” arguing in a filing with the high court that the lower court’s decision was “based on a dubious interpretation” of the Constitution.
“The Court should reverse the Colorado decision because President Trump is not even subject to section 3, as the President is not an ‘officer of the United States’ under the Constitution. And even if President Trump were subject to section 3 he did not ‘engage in’ anything that qualifies as ‘insurrection,’” Trump’s attorneys wrote in the 59-page brief.
Trump’s legal team notes that “efforts are underway in more than 30 states to remove President Trump from the primary and general-election ballots based on similar rationales” and could have severe consequences.
“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,” the filing states.
The brief further argues that “nothing in Colorado’s Election Code requires the Secretary of State to evaluate the qualifications of presidential primary candidates” and that the state elections official has “no duty” to “verify or second guess the candidate’s sworn representations, or to exclude presidential candidates from the ballot.”
The high court is poised to hold oral arguments on Feb. 8 in Trump’s challenge to the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling.
Nearly 200 congressional Republicans — including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — signed onto a separate brief Thursday urging the Supreme Court to keep Trump on 2024 ballots.
“In polarized times, it is easy to cast an opponent’s rhetoric about the outcome of elections as encouraging others to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power,” the 37-page brief said.
The lawmakers also argued that the ruling “short-circuited” the role of Congress.
After the 4-3 Colorado decision, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, pulled Trump off her state’s ballot also citing Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Trump’s name will appear on both Colorado’s and Maine’s primary ballots for the March 5 Super Tuesday election pending the Supreme Court’s decision.
