Last month, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision to keep President Trump off the 2024 Primary ballot in the state. The Colorado high court has been the only court to rule this way out of several decided or dismissed in other states.
The case was initially dismissed in November by Colorado District Court Judge Sarah Wallace, but was later appealed both by the plaintiffs and Donald Trump.
The Colorado Supreme Court decision left President Trump the opportunity to stay the decision if he chose to appeal to the US Supreme Court before January 4th, which his legal team did. This would ensure that he was eligible to be on the ballot at the time Colorado requires ballots be printed for the primary races.
A week later, the Maine Secretary of State ruled that President Trump was ineligible from her state’s ballot but conceded that the US Supreme Court will likely have to interpret the 14th Amendment and its application.
Now, the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear oral arguments in the case regarding the implementation of the 14th Amendment in this situation. The hearing is set for February 8th.
BREAKING: SCOTUS has granted cert in the case of Colorado attempting to remove Pres. Trump from the ballot.
They can now deliver finality on the 14th Amendment for every state to follow.
— Daniel Baldwin (@baldwin_daniel_) January 5, 2024
In a petition for Writ of Certiorari, Trump’s legal team argued the implications of leaving the interpretation of the 14th Amendment to the States, stating:
Vice President Harris, President Biden, and their staffs advocated for, marched with, and provided material support to rioters in the wake of George Floyd’s death in 2020. These rioters stormed the White House, injuring police officers and forcing the President, his family, and his staff to shelter in a bunker. They also killed people, took over government buildings, caused extensive property damage, and sought to establish alternative “governments” in the form of so-called “autonomous zones.” If a state official believes that President Biden or Vice President Harris aided these efforts, he may eliminate President Biden and Vice President Harris from the ballot. And all their past actions can be nullified as “ultra vires.”
The petition went on to cite Congresswoman Maxine Waters saying “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and create a crowd and you push back on them.” It then mentions that then-House Whip Steve Scalise was in-fact confronted at a Congressional softball game and shot by the attacker.
More to come as this story develops…