The Supreme Court on Sunday ignited speculation that it would rule Monday on former President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn a ruling that would keep him off the Colorado ballot.
The court did not tip its hand but merely noted on its website that a ruling is expected to be issued.
The Supreme Court website is now saying there will be rulings tomorrow.
With Colorado’s primary taking place on Tuesday, it would seem quite likely that they will decide the Trump ballot eligibility case. pic.twitter.com/Q5lcaDEKPv
— Lawrence Hurley (@lawrencehurley) March 3, 2024
A Colorado Supreme Court ruling cited Section 3 of the 14th Amendment as grounds to say Trump would be off the ballot, citing his post-election campaign against the results of the 2020 elections. The section bans anyone who was involved in an insurrection holding elected office, although Trump’s lawyers and those for Colorado voters who wanted Trump off the ballot sparred over the precise interpretation of the wording.
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The order was put on hold while Trump appealed, meaning the former president is set to appear on the ballot for Tuesday’s Republican primary in Colorado, according to NBC.
Jonathan Mitchell, an attorney representing Trump, said there was no insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, according to CBS.
“For an insurrection, there needs to be an organized, concerted effort to overthrow the government of the United States through violence,” he said. “This was a riot. It was not an insurrection. The events were shameful, criminal, violent, all those things, but they did not qualify as an insurrection as that term is used in Section 3.”
Writing on the Supreme Court blog, commentator Amy Howe noted that after the Feb. 8 oral arguments, the speculation was on Trump’s side, writing that it “appeared ready to hold that Colorado cannot exclude former President Donald Trump from the ballot based on his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol.”
Will SCOTUS rule in Trump’s favor?
Howe noted that “justices of all ideological stripes questioned the wisdom of allowing a state to make its own decisions about whether a candidate should appear on the ballot, both because of the effect that such decisions would have on the rest of the country and because of the hurdles that courts would face in reviewing those decisions.”
Howe noted that during oral arguments, Justice Elena Kagan, who usually votes with the liberal wing of the court “was among the most vocal in expressing her concerns.
“Why, she queried, should one state be able to disqualify a candidate from the ballot and, in so doing, effectively determine who becomes the president of the United States? Rather than sounding like an issue for an individual state to decide, she said, that ‘sounds awfully national to me,’” Howe wrote.
Howe noted a comment from Justice Amy Coney Barrett that knocking a candidate off the ballot “just doesn’t seem like a state call.”
Howe further noted that Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts said allowing one state to knock one candidate off the ballot could begin a process they viewed with skepticism.
Roberts said if Trump is knocked off the ballot, an effort to knock President Joe Biden off as well might take place.
“And some of those will succeed,” he said, creating a situation where a “handful of states … are going to decide the presidential election. That’s a pretty daunting consequence,” Roberts said.
Trump has been knocked off the ballot in Illinois and Maine, with both cases being appealed. The impact of those decisions is on hold pending those appeals.
