Supreme Court to hear Trump challenge to Colorado ballot removal next month

The Supreme Court will decide whether former President Donald Trump is eligible to run for president again after the Colorado Supreme Court found he had violated the Constitution’s so-called “Insurrection Clause.”

In a brief order Friday evening, the high court announced it will hear arguments Feb. 8 in the 77-year-old’s challenge to the Centennial State ruling, which temporarily removed from the state’s March 5 Republican primary ballot.

The Colorado decision, handed down Dec. 19, had cited Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot as proof that he violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars those who have violated their oath of office and “engaged in insurrection” from governing again.

In their appeal filed Wednesday, Trump’s attorneys had argued that “[i]n our system of ‘government of the people, by the people, [and] for the people,’ Colorado’s ruling is not and cannot be correct.”

“The question of eligibility to serve as President of the United States is properly reserved for Congress, not the state courts, to consider and decide,” the filing added.

“By considering the question of President Trump’s eligibility and barring him from the ballot, the Colorado Supreme Court arrogated Congress’ authority.”

The former president’s legal team argued for the Colorado decision to be reversed on three grounds: First, that the presidency was not among the offices covered by Section 3; second, that the Colorado Supreme Court had wrongly described the 45th president as having “engaged” in that day’s violence; and third, that the court violated the Constitution by intervening in the matter at all.

The Colorado Supreme Court stayed its own ruling pending Trump’s appeal, and state Secretary of State Jena Griswold confirmed Dec. 28 that Trump would remain on the 2024 primary ballot unless the US Supreme Court affirmed the state court’s decision.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.