WASHINGTON – The United States Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear former President Donald Trump's appeal of a Colorado trial court ruling that would bar him from the presidential primary in that western state.
The Supreme Court plans to hear oral arguments in the case on February 8.
The justices recognized the need to reach a decision quickly as voters will soon begin casting ballots in presidential primaries across the country. The court agreed to take up a case in Colorado relating to Trump's alleged role in the events that culminated in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Last month, the Colorado Supreme Court, made up of judges appointed by Democratic governors, banned Trump from participating in Republican presidential elections in the state due to his alleged role in the attack on the Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021.
He invoked the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which, in Section Three, prohibits any person from holding public office if he or she has participated in an “insurrection or rebellion” after pledging to: to support and defend the Magna Carta.
The amendment, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War, was intended to prevent supporters of the slaveholding Confederacy from being elected to Congress or holding federal office.
Overturn judgment
Lawyers for Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination and a leader in national polls, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Colorado ruling.
They estimate that “if it remains so, it will be the first time in the history of the United States that the judiciary has prevented voters from casting their ballot for a major party’s primary candidate in the presidential election.”
According to lawyers, only Congress has that prerogative.
Trump's lawyers also argue that Section Three of the 14th Amendment does not apply to Trump as a former president, that January 6 was not an “insurrection” and that Trump “did not in any way participate in an insurrection.”
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SPRING: With information from AFP and AP