The majority of states have vowed to support President Donald Trump as he appeals his disqualification from the Colorado primary.
The United States Supreme Court agreed to hear Trump’s case on Jan. 5, issuing an administrative stay to a previous ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court. The nation’s highest court will hear arguments in the appeal on Feb. 8.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that Trump was not eligible to appear on the primary ballot in March because of his alleged involvement in the riot at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021.
“The lawsuit is viewed as a test case for a wider effort to disqualify Trump from state ballots under section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was enacted after the U.S. Civil War to keep supporters of the confederacy from serving in the government,” reports Reuters.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita submitted an Amici Curiae brief to the Supreme Court, arguing that “the state court’s choice to declare former President Donald Trump an insurrectionist under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment has vast consequences that reach far beyond Colorado.” Morrisey and Rokita wrote that the state court’s “decision to dilute former President Trump’s votes in the upcoming election cannot stand for several reasons.”
The brief was backed by attorneys general from 27 other states, including New Hampshire, Iowa, Arizona, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, and Alaska.
“If the Colorado decision stands, that critical confidence will be harmed,” declared the attorneys general. “Many Americans will become convinced that a few partisan actors have contrived to take a political decision out of ordinary voter’s hands.”
“Any damage may already have been done by the time another case raising similar issues makes its way back to this Court,” the states told the Supreme Court. “And the longer litigation over a national candidate’s eligibility persists, the more uncertainty and confusion will spread. Voters need an answer in time to judiciously weigh the merits of competing candidates before casting their ballots, not after voting has begun.”
Shortly after Colorado banned Trump from the ballot, Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced she would also bar the Republican front-runner from the race.
“My obligation under Maine State law was to issue a decision very quickly, not permitted under Maine law to wait for the United States Supreme Court to intervene in this particular proceeding," she told CBS News on Dec. 29. "I was required to issue that decision. And I could only look at the hearing, evidence, and facts that were presented during that hearing. In evaluating the weight of evidence, it made clear that Mr. Trump was aware of the tinder that was laid in a multi-month effort to delegitimize the 2020 election, and then chose to light a match.”
Republicans in Maine’s House of Representatives have introduced articles of impeachment against Bellows for failing to recuse herself due to political bias.
Trump’s legal team is also appealing his case against Maine. He will remain on the Colorado ballot pending the Supreme Court’s ruling.
