The Colorado Republican Party asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to overturn the Colorado Supreme Court’s stunning decision to block Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot next year.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump is disqualified for running from office and can’t appear on the state’s presidential primary ballot because he violated the so-called “insurrection clause” in the Constitution.
The outcome of the case will have national consequences as Trump’s candidacy has been challenged under the Civil War-era provision, which is found in the 14th Amendment, in several states.
However, the filing of the appeal may have the effect of ensuring that Trump will be on the GOP presidential primary ballot in Colorado. The Colorado Supreme Court stayed its decision to keep Trump off the March 5 primary ballot until Jan. 4 or until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on any appeal.
State law requires the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office to set the ballot by Jan. 5, which is next Friday. Ballots are required under federal law to be sent to military and overseas voters by Jan. 20.
The high court must accept the ruling before considering arguments. It would be highly unusual for the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a ruling in the Colorado case in a matter of days. Legal scholars have urged the court to hear the case given its weighty national implications.
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The state GOP argued the ruling could unleash chaos in future elections, setting a precedent that each of the 50 states could unilaterally remove presidential candidates from the ballot.
“By excluding President Trump from the ballot, the Colorado Supreme Court engaged in an unprecedented disregard for the First Amendment right of political parties to select the candidates of their choice and a usurpation of the rights of the people to choose their elected officials,” the state Republican Party wrote in its petition.
“The historical significance of this decision cannot be overstated,” the petition said. “The Colorado Supreme Court has removed the leading Republican candidate from the primary and general ballots, fundamentally changing the course of American democracy.”
The Colorado GOP is represented in the case by Jay Sekulow, a former Trump attorney.
Trump’s 2024 election campaign is also expected to appeal the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling in the coming days.
The former president has called the cases challenging his candidacy “election interference.” Trump continued his attack Wednesday as he cheered a ruling earlier that day by the Michigan Supreme Court leaving him on the ballot, at least for the primary, in that state.
“The Colorado people have embarrassed our nation with what they did,” Trump said on Sean Hannity’s radio show.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat who supports the decision to keep Trump off the ballot, told The Colorado Sun last week that “there is a little bit of wiggle room” in the ballot certification deadline but not much. She said it takes between eight and 10 days to print ballots.
“If the U.S. Supreme Court decides to take the case, I hope they do so with the same urgency that the Colorado court system has shown,” Griswold said.
Sean Grimsley, an attorney for the plaintiffs seeking to disqualify Trump in Colorado, said on a legal podcast last week that he expects the nation’s high court will accept the case, and he hopes it hurries once that happens. “We obviously are going to ask for an extremely accelerated timeline because of all the reasons I’ve stated, we have a primary coming up on Super Tuesday and we need to know the answer,” Grimsley said.
While the case comes from Colorado, the Centennial State is the least of Trump’s worries. He lost in Colorado in 2016 and 2020 is likely to lose again in 2024, according to polling and Democrats’ recent dominance in the state.
The real threat is how the Colorado case affects his overall campaign.
If the U.S. Supreme Court agrees with the Colorado Supreme Court that Trump is disqualified from running for office again under the 14th Amendment, his 2024 candidacy could be in jeopardy nationwide.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was passed in the wake of the Civil War, bars “officers of the United States” who took an “oath … to support the Constitution of the United States” and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof” from holding federal or state office again.
The Colorado Supreme Court, in its 4-3 ruling Dec. 19, found that Trump engaged in an insurrection Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol. It also dismissed the Trump campaign’s argument that the 14th Amendment doesn’t apply to presidents because they aren’t “officers” of the United States.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s review of the appeal may hinge on their interpretation of Colorado’s unique election laws — laws which made the state ripe for the candidacy challenge.
The three Colorado Supreme Court justices who dissented raised concerns about the speed of the state’s ballot-access challenge laws and whether they apply to questions about qualifications under the insurrection clause or more mundane criteria like party affiliation and age, citizenship and country of birth.
“The framework that (Colorado’s election law) offers for identifying qualified candidates is not commensurate with the extraordinary determination to disqualify a candidate because they engaged in insurrection against the Constitution,” Chief Justice Brian Boatright wrote in his dissent.
The court’s majority brushed off the concerns.
“Although Colorado’s expedited statutory procedure for litigating election disputes may be unfamiliar nationally, our courts, particularly the Denver District Court (the proper venue when the Secretary is the named respondent), are accustomed to section 1-1-113 litigation,” Justices Monica Márquez, William Hood, Richard Gabriel and Melissa Hart wrote in the court’s 132-page majority opinion. “Such cases arise during virtually every election cycle, and this court has exercised jurisdiction many times to review these disputes.”
The Colorado case stems from a lawsuit filed on behalf of Krista Kafer, a Republican activist and political commentator in Colorado; Norma Anderson, a Republican who was formerly the majority leader in the Colorado Senate; Michelle Priola, the wife of state Sen. Kevin Priola, who switched his party affiliation to Democratic from Republican in 2022; and Chris Castilian, former chief of staff for then-Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican.
The lawsuit was spearheaded by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal, Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that doesn’t reveal its donors.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.