SCOTUS to consider Trump 14th Amendment ballot disqualification case

Written by ABC Audio ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on January 5, 2024

(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday said it would consider the appeal of former President Donald Trump’s disqualification from the Colorado GOP primary ballot.

Moving with relative speed in matter that could prove consequential in the 2024 presidential election, the justices set oral arguments for Thursday, Feb. 8.

Trump’s team on Wednesday asked the high court to overturn the Colorado Supreme Court’s explosive decision deeming him ineligible to run for the White House in 2024 because, it said, he “engaged in insurrection” on Jan. 6, 2021.

“The issues presented in this petition are of exceptional importance and urgently require this court’s prompt resolution,” his attorneys wrote.

Colorado was the first state to bar Trump from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, followed by Maine.

Trump has also filed an appeal seeking to overturn Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ decision.

More 14th Amendment-related lawsuits are ongoing across the country, though Trump has so far won challenges to his eligibility in Michigan, California and a dozen other states.

“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,” Trump’s team wrote in its petition to the Supreme Court. “Indeed, the Maine secretary of state, in an administrative proceeding, has already used the Colorado proceedings as justification for unlawfully striking President Trump from that state’s ballot.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.