The U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday that it will decide whether former President Donald Trump can be disqualified from running for president because of his actions to overturn his 2020 election defeat, bringing the court into Trump's 2024 presidential campaign enters, reported the Voice of America, VOA.
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 role in the events that culminated in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The court will consider for the first time the meaning and scope of a provision of the 14th Amendment that prohibits anyone who has “participated in an insurrection” from holding public office.
The amendment was passed in 1868 after the Civil War. It was so little used that the highest court had no previous opportunity to interpret it.
The judges dealt with the case with unusual speed. Trump, the favorite to win his party's nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in November's election, filed an appeal on Wednesday.
The justices indicated they would expedite a decision and scheduled oral arguments for Feb. 8. Colorado's primary election is scheduled for March 5.
The Supreme Court did not respond to a separate appeal by the Colorado Republican Party of the state court's decision.
The Colorado case puts the Supreme Court, whose 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices appointed by Trump, at the center of an unprecedented and politically sensitive attempt by its critics to derail his bid to retake the White House.
Many Republicans have criticized the disqualification campaign as election interference, while supporters of disqualification have said that holding Trump constitutionally responsible for an insurrection supports Democratic values.
Trump is already facing criminal charges on two counts for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden.
Trump also appealed to a Maine state court against a state government decision that barred him from participating in the primary election under the same constitutional provision at issue in the Colorado case.