Former President Donald Trump appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday to overturn Colorado’s decision to remove him from the 2024 presidential ballot.
“In our system of ‘government of the people, by the people, (and) for the people,’ Colorado’s ruling is not and cannot be correct,” the filing made by Trump’s attorneys on Wednesday said. “This Court should grant certiorari to consider this question of paramount importance, summarily reverse the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling, and return the right to vote for their candidate of choice to the voters.”
Trump's appeal intensifies the growing urgency for the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene as the primaries draw near.
Colorado’s decision to take Trump off the Republican ballot used Section 3 of the 14th Amendment as a foundation for its argument, claiming that Trump had “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S. for his involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capital.
Trump’s legal team has argued that individual states lack the power to implement Section 3, and doing so would lead to voter confusion. “The Colorado Supreme Court decision would unconstitutionally disenfranchise millions of voters in Colorado and likely be used as a template to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters nationwide,” Trump’s attorney wrote in the filing.
On Dec. 27, 2023, the Michigan Supreme Court made the decision to allow Trump to remain on the state’s ballot. However, the following day, Maine’s Democratic Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, barred Trump’s name from the electoral ballot under similar rationale as Colorado’s decision to remove Trump.
“The court can’t let state supreme courts make a patchwork of decisions,” said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School, told The Wall Street Journal. “The case brings up an important federal constitutional question with time-sensitive consequences. They will need to act, and act quickly.”
Colorado’s secretary of state, Jena Griswold, asked the Supreme Court in a brief “to resolve the question of Trump’s eligibility as expeditiously as possible in light of the upcoming election calendar. This will ensure that, to the greatest extent possible, all Coloradans know whether Trump is eligible to be elected president at the time they cast their ballots.”
While the U.S. Supreme Court has not yet indicated if it will consider Trump’s appeal, multiple states have raised objections to Trump’s ability to seek a second term as president.
“The need for the United States Supreme Court to step in is paramount to protecting everyone’s right to vote for the candidate that they think is best,” former Colorado Rep. Dave Willaims told Fox News Digital. “The more likely the Supreme Court waits to take up this case, the more likely you’re going to see other states like Maine follow Colorado’s lead and that’s something we shouldn’t tolerate.”
Williams, who is the chairman of Colorado’s Republican Party, called the removal of Trump from state ballots a “constitutional crisis.”