WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump on Thursday petitioned the Supreme Court to allow him to run in the Republican primary in Colorado. At the Capitol.
Trump's lawyers filed a brief It presents its position ahead of oral arguments scheduled for February 8.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on December 19 that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution prohibits “an officer of the United States” from running for various federal offices “engaged in rebellion.”
The case raises a number of previously unsettled legal questions, including whether constitutional language applies to presidential candidates and who should decide whether someone has engaged in sedition.
In Thursday's filing, Trump's lawyers touched on those themes, saying that a president is not an “officer of the United States,” that Trump “has not engaged in sedition” and that only Congress can enforce the provision in question.
“The court must put a swift and decisive end to these ballot-disenfranchisement efforts that threaten to disenfranchise tens of thousands of Americans, promising to unleash chaos and confusion if other state courts and state officials follow Colorado's lead and exclude the Republican presidential nominee from their ballots,” Trump's attorneys wrote.
A state high court ruling overturned a lower court ruling that a judge had said on Jan. 6 that Trump incited riots, but presidents are not subject to the 14th Amendment's sedition clause because they are “not an official.” America.”
The state court said the ruling will be stayed indefinitely once Trump appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Interest grew in the Colorado case when Maine's top election official ruled that Trump was ineligible to appear on the Republican primary ballot in that state as well. That case was shelved, meaning Trump is now on the ballot, and Trump's appeal is also pending resolution of the Supreme Court case.
The high court's ruling could lead to changes in all 50 states, a point Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, emphasized Thursday. Friend of the Court Brief Emphasizes the need for a firm decision on the issue. He noted that a similar challenge was filed in Michigan and, while it failed in the Republican primary, could be revived for the November general election.
“These questions must be fully answered now because election officials, like the secretary, need to know whether the former president is qualified to appear on the ballot as a candidate, and voters deserve to know whether he is qualified to hold the office of president. Vote,” Benson's lawyers wrote. Benson did not take a position on the matter.
Dozens of other briefs have been filed so far in the case, including one in support filed by Trump 179 Republican members of Congress Led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
The initial lawsuit was filed by a left-leaning government watchdog group on behalf of six Colorado voters Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and two law firms. They and their supporters have a deadline of January 31 to file their own briefs in the Supreme Court.
