According to the court, the US Supreme Court will hear a historic case involving Donald Trump’s eligibility to run for president.
In response to Colorado’s decision to remove Mr. Trump’s name from the ballot in that state for 2024, the justices have agreed to hear his appeal. The verdict is binding on the entire country and the trial is scheduled for February.
Multiple states are suing to remove Mr. Trump from office on the grounds that he participated in an uprising during the rioting at the US Capitol three years ago. If a constitutional provision from the Civil War makes Mr. Trump unable to run for office, then the legal challenges will center on that question.
Following a brief filed by the attorneys general of 27 states requesting the court to reject Colorado’s decision, the Supreme Court decided to consider Mr. Trump’s appeal.
That would “create widespread chaos,” they say, if Mr. Trump were removed from the ballot.
Under the heading “most obviously, it casts confusion into an election cycle that is just weeks away,” the piece reads. “Beyond that, it upsets the respective roles of the Congress, the States, and the courts.”
Trump refers to indictments as a “badge of honour” during campaign rally after being removed from Colorado ballot Prosecutors for the ex-president contend that the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which bars “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding federal office, does not apply to their client.
His attorneys say that “The Colorado Supreme Court decision would unconstitutionally disenfranchise millions of voters in Colorado and likely be used as a template to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters nationwide.”
Election authorities in Maine removed Mr. Trump’s name from the ballot, and he has challenged the decision.
Secretary of State Jena Griswold of Colorado announced Friday that the state’s ballots for the forthcoming presidential primary elections had been certified, and that Mr. Trump’s name was on them, after the announcement by the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court will decide, Trump can run for president.
The presidential candidates who will compete in November’s election will be decided in part by the primary ballots that are held in each state. Early March, following the anticipated Supreme Court ruling on Mr. Trump’s lawsuit, is when Colorado’s is scheduled to take place.
“The United States Supreme Court has accepted the case, and Donald Trump will appear on the ballot as a result,” Ms. Griswold said in a statement.
In a historic 4-3 decision last month, the highest court in Colorado became the first in US history to exclude a presidential candidate from the ballot by citing the 14th Amendment.
The issue of the clause’s interpretation has never before been considered by the Supreme Court.
For a rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden in November’s election, Mr. Trump is now the Republican front-runner.
Efforts to disqualify Mr. Trump have been rejected by courts in Michigan and Minnesota. More cases are still pending, some of which are in Oregon.
With the appointment of three justices by Mr. Trump during his presidency, the US Supreme Court now has a conservative majority.
The significance of the decisions in Maine and Colorado for Trump’s campaign
In his case challenging his defeat to Mr. Biden in 2020, the New York attorney general sought $370 million from Trump, but they decided against him decisively.
On Friday, the court decided to move quickly to hear the case, setting the date for 8 February for oral arguments.
By January 18th, the legal team for Mr. Trump is expected to submit its opening brief.
The deadline for the disqualification of Mr. Trump’s group to submit its argument is January 31st.
Some have compared the involvement of the highest US court to the 2000 presidential election, when a lawsuit reached the Supreme Court over the contest between George Bush and Al Gore.
Mr. Bush was effectively given the victory when the conservative-majority court decided to stop the recount in Florida.
The top election officer in Maine explains why she deleted Trump’s name from the ballot.
“Exceptionally fast track” was “predictable and necessitated by the growing number of cases being filed in various states around the country,” according to Cart Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond.
“Compelling need for election officials in many states to prepare” and “need for time to plan and execute smooth voting processes on short notice” are both necessary considerations in the lead-up to state primary elections.
Unlike the few weeks that justices have available, most Supreme Court cases take four to twelve months.
Based on the calendar, a decision from the court is likely to be announced before the March Super Tuesday primary election, when states like Colorado and many others choose their presidential candidates.
As senators were recognizing Joe Biden’s electoral triumph on the day of the US Capitol riot, supporters of Donald Trump stormed Congress.
At a speech outside the White House that day, the then-president taunted the demonstrators with baseless accusations of widespread election fraud while simultaneously calling on them to “fight like hell” and march “peacefully” to the Capitol.
Some say that Mr. Trump ought to be disqualified for what he did during the violence and for what he and his team did to try to reverse the election results in areas that were Republican-aligned and which he lost.
No criminal charges of inciting rebellion have been brought against Mr. Trump in either the federal court or the Georgia state court trials over his alleged attempts to influence the 2020 presidential race.