The Supreme Court will hear arguments on former President Donald Trump’s appeal of a Colorado Supreme Court decision to strike him from the ballot, a monumental case with implications for similar ballot access challenges in states across the country that could determine the presidential election.
The court will hear oral arguments on February 8, 2024, an expedited schedule that demonstrates the significance of resolving the case quickly.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled in December in a four-to-three opinion that the Fourteenth Amendment’s “Insurrection Clause” prohibits Trump from appearing on the ballot for the presidency in 2024. The ruling partially reversed a lower court’s ruling that Trump is not an officer of the United States as defined by the Fourteenth Amendment and that the Amendment, therefore, cannot be used to disqualify him from appearing on the Colorado primary ballot.
SCOTUS to review Trump’s Colorado ban: pic.twitter.com/e3zKsf3DqU
— Wendell Husebø (@WendellHusebo) January 5, 2024
The Court unilaterally determined that “clear and convincing evidence” proved “that President Trump engaged in insurrection” despite Trump having never been convicted of that or any other crime or even been charged in court with the crime of insurrection. The U.S. Senate acquitted him of charges of engaging in insurrection, and he continues to deny wrongdoing.
Without any court proceedings to support its legal assertion, the Court cited the U.S. House January 6 Select Committee, notwithstanding that Trump was acquitted of the House’s charges in the Senate.
The Colorado lawsuit is one of many filed in states across the country citing the “Insurrection Clause” as justification for removing Trump from the ballot. While Trump has received favorable outcomes in multiple states — including Colorado before its Supreme Court partially reversed that ruling — the Maine secretary of state also removed Trump from the ballot.
The Supreme Court has never ruled definitively on the meaning of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court’s decision on the Colorado case could be the final word in Maine as well as other states.
The case is Trump v. Anderson, No. 23-719, in the Supreme Court of the United States.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
