On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will hear Donald Trump's appeal regarding the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling last month that blocked him from appearing on the state's Republican primary ballot. The outcome could significantly impact the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
Left-wing groups have waged a multi-state battle to remove Trump from primary ballots, using Section Three of the 14th Amendment as a pretext. Since he has never been tried or convicted of sedition or participating in an insurrection, these efforts should never have succeeded.
While most states have rejected efforts to boot Trump from the ballot, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump was ineligible under the 14th Amendment, and Maine's Secretary of State decided to go rogue and declare Trump guilty without a trial. A similar case is underway before the Oregon Supreme Court.
While some leftists have cheered the shamefully undemocratic efforts to remove Trump from ballots, experts on both sides of the aisle have predicted that if the Supreme Court decided to take the case it would unanimously overturn the rulings against Trump.
"The justices made their decision to hear the case with unusual speed,” reports Reuters. "Trump, the frontrunner for his party's nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November election, filed his appeal on Wednesday. The state Republican Party on Dec. 27 also appealed the ruling."
The state court, acting in a challenge to Trump by Republican and unaffiliated voters in Colorado, found Trump ineligible for the presidency under a constitutional provision that bars anyone who "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" from holding public office, and therefore barred him from appearing on the primary ballot.
The Colorado case thrusts the Supreme Court – whose 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices appointed by Trump – into the unprecedented and politically fraught effort to invalidate Trump's bid to reclaim the White House.
Many Republicans have decried the disqualification as election interference, while proponents of disqualification have said holding Trump constitutionally accountable for an insurrection supports democratic values. Trump already faces criminal charges in two cases related to his effort to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden.
Trump also has appealed to a Maine state court a decision by that state's top election official barring him from the primary ballot under the same constitutional provision at issue in the Colorado case.
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Their action will shape a wider effort to disqualify Trump from other state ballots as the 2024 election draws closer. Colorado and Maine are both Democratic-leaning states. Nonpartisan U.S. political analysts forecast that both states are unlikely to back a Republican presidential candidate on Nov. 5. But there are efforts underway in other states - including competitive Michigan - that could shape the election's outcome.
"President Trump will ultimately prevail in these unconstitutional attempts to steal the election and Make America Great Again,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.
Trump has never been charged with sedition or participating in an insurrection. All evidence shows that these allegations are baseless. Trump was still speaking when the violence at the Capitol began, and there’s also ample evidence that various groups preplanned the riot.
Perhaps more importantly, Trump specifically called on his supporters to engage in peaceful protest. “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” Trump said in his speech.
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