Former United States President Donald Trump’s bid to run for the White House in 2024 faces a crucial test on Thursday, February 8, when the U.S. Supreme Court hears his appeal against his disqualification from the Colorado GOP primary ballot.
The justices agreed to review the case on Friday, after Trump’s lawyers urged them to reverse the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that he was ineligible to run for president again because he “engaged in insurrection” on January 6, 2021.
“This court’s prompt resolution of the issues presented in this petition are of exceptional importance and urgently required,” his attorneys wrote.
Trump’s campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, expressed confidence that the Supreme Court would “affirm the civil rights of President Trump, and the voting rights of all Americans” and reject the “bad-faith, election-interfering, voter-suppressing, Democrat-backed and Biden-led, 14th Amendment abusing decision” that removed Trump’s name from the Colorado ballot, in a statement to ABC News.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who supported the lawsuit that challenged Trump’s eligibility, said in a statement that “Coloradans, and the American people, deserve clarity on whether someone who engaged in insurrection may run for the country’s highest office” and called on the Court to prioritize the case.
The plaintiffs, six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters, are represented by CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington), which said in a post on X that it “looked forward to” arguing the case before the Supreme Court.
Colorado was the first state to invoke Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars anyone who has engaged in insurrection against the U.S. from holding office, to block Trump from the ballot, followed by Maine.
Trump has also appealed Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ decision to disqualify him under the same clause, finding that he “engaged in insurrection” on January 6.
Trump has faced more than 30 lawsuits across the country seeking to bar him from running for president under the 14th Amendment, but he has also won several legal battles in states like Michigan, California and Minnesota, where he was allowed to remain on the ballot.
