DENVER (AP) — Former President Donald Trump asked Wednesday US Supreme Court to overturn A judgment Barring him from the Colorado ballot set up a high-stakes showdown over whether a constitutional provision banning “insurrectionists” would end his political career.
Trump appealed the Colorado Supreme Court's 4-3 ruling in December, which marked Section 3 for the first time in history. 14th Amendment Used to block a presidential candidate from voting. The court found that Trump had a role in this January 6, 2021 attack It disqualified him under the US Capitol Rule.
Allotment Used so little in American history that the US Supreme Court has never ruled on it.
Wednesday's development came a day after Trump's legal team Appealed vs Ruling by Maine's Democratic Secretary of StateShanna Bellows said Trump was ineligible to appear on the state's ballot for his role. Capital Assault. The Colorado Supreme Court and Maine Secretary of State's rulings are on hold pending appeals.
Trump's critics have filed dozens of lawsuits in several states seeking his disqualification. He lost Colorado by 13 percentage points in 2020, not necessarily winning the state to secure the Republican presidential nomination or the presidency. But Colorado's ruling has the potential to prompt courts or the secretary of state to remove it from the ballot in other must-win states.
Nobody wins A narrow majority of Colorado's seven judges — all appointed by Democratic governors — ruled against Trump last month. Critics warned that this was an exaggeration and that a court could not simply declare the January 6 attack an “insurgency” without judicial process.
“The Colorado Supreme Court decision could be used as a template to unconstitutionally disenfranchise millions of voters in Colorado and disenfranchise millions of voters across the country,” Trump's lawyers wrote in their appeal to the nation's highest court. Lead the way.
Trump's new appeal to the US Supreme Court follows suit Republican Party of Colorado. Legal observers expect the high court to take up the case over unresolved constitutional issues that go to the heart of the country's governance.
All the parties insisted on speedy investigation of the case. Trump's lawyers asked the court on Wednesday to vacate the ruling without even hearing oral arguments. Lawyers representing the Colorado plaintiffs have insisted on oral arguments but have sought a broadly accelerated schedule that calls for a settlement by next month. Colorado's primary is March 5.
Sean Grimsley, a lawyer for the plaintiffs seeking Trump's impeachment in Colorado, said late last month on the legal podcast “Law, Disrupted” that he hoped the case would move as quickly as he had hoped once the nation's highest court took up the case.
“We have a primary on Super Tuesday and we need to know the answer to that,” Grimsley said.
The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed A discovery January 6 was a “rebellion” by a district court judge. Instigated by Trump. It agreed with the petitioners, six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters funded by a Washington-based liberal group, that Trump had clearly violated the rule. Because of this, the court ruled that he was disqualified if he failed to meet the constitution's minimum age requirement for the presidency of 35 years.
In doing so, the state high court reversed the lower court judge's ruling, saying it was not clear that Article 3 applied to the president. This is one of the many issues being considered by the country's Supreme Court.
Issues like whether states like Colorado can determine who is covered under Article 3, whether congressional action is needed to create a process to bar people from office, and whether they met the legislation on January 6th. Definition of Rebellion And did Trump engage in First Amendment action that day or was he responsible for the violent attack aimed at ending Democrat Joe Biden's certificate of victory? Trump held a rally before the Capitol attack, telling his supporters “If you don't Fight like hellYou will no longer have a country.”
Six of the nine justices of the US Supreme Court were appointed by Republicans Three by Trump.
The Colorado ruling cites a decision before one of Trump's Supreme Court nominees, Neil Gorsuch, when he was a federal judge in Colorado. The ruling determined that the government had a legitimate interest in removing from the presidential ballot a US citizen who was ineligible for office because he was born in Guyana.
However, Article 3 was rarely used in the years after the Civil War, when it prevented defeated Confederates from returning to their former positions of government. Two sentences said that anyone who had taken an oath to “support” the Constitution and then rebelled could not hold office unless a two-thirds vote of Congress allowed it.
Legal scholars believe its only application in the 20th century was cited by Congress in 1919 to block the seat of a socialist who opposed American intervention in World War I and was elected to the House of Representatives.
But in 2022, a judge used it Fire a rural New Mexico county commissioner He is out of office after he was convicted of a misdemeanor for entering the US Capitol on January 6. Liberal groups sued to block Republicans representatives. Madison Cawthorne and Marjorie Taylor Green from running for re-election because of their role that day. Cawthorne's case became moot when he lost his primary in 2022, and a judge ruled to put Green on the ballot.
Some conservatives say that if Trump is impeached, political groups will routinely use Article 3 against opponents in unexpected ways.
The Biden administration has said the president had no role in the case.
Whether Trump can be on the ballot isn't the only issue involving the former president or January 6 that has reached the high court. Judges last month Special counsel rejected Jack Smith's request While the issue could soon come back before the court, depending on the ruling by a Washington-based appeals court, Trump's claims that he is immune from prosecution in a case accusing him of conspiring to alter the presidential election should be quickly taken up and ruled on.
The court also said The appeal is pending This can raise hundreds of charges Capital riotsIncluding against Trump.
