DENVER — Former President Donald Trump urged the Supreme Court to overturn a ruling by Colorado’s highest court that would keep him out of the primaries in that state.
“In our system of ‘Government of the people, by the people and for the people’, the Colorado decision is not and cannot be correct,” reads the text from Trump’s legal team, which points out that the state court “does not has the authority to deny” the former president his “access” to the primaries.
The Colorado Supreme Court, whose justices have been appointed by Democratic governors, vetoed Trump last month from appearing on the Republican primary ballots in that state for his alleged role in the assault on the Capitol in Washington that his supporters carried out. on January 6, 2021.
The former president’s defense asked the conservative-dominated Supreme Court to agree to hear the case and “summarily annul the decision of the Colorado Supreme Court.”
They argued that the ruling “if upheld, will mark the first time in American history that a court decision prevented voters from voting for the leading candidate of a major party.”
“The question of eligibility to serve as President of the United States is properly reserved to Congress, not the state courts, for consideration and decision,” they argued.
Wednesday’s appeal came a day after Trump’s legal team filed an appeal against the decision by Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who ruled that Trump was ineligible to appear on the primary ballot. of the state for his alleged role in the attack on the Capitol. Both the Colorado Supreme Court ruling and the Maine Secretary of State’s ruling are on hold until appeals are resolved.
Cancel resolution
The former president’s lawyers urged the Maine Superior Court to overturn the resolution of Maine Secretary of State, Democrat Shenna Bellows, whom they described as “biased” and accused of acting “arbitrarily and capriciously.”
Both the Colorado Supreme Court and Bellows determined that Trump, the favorite for his party’s nomination in the 2024 primary, was ineligible to appear on the primary ballot by invoking the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Section three of that amendment prohibits any person from holding public office if they have participated in an “insurrection or rebellion” after pledging to support and defend Magna Carta.
In other states, Democrats have also raised similar 14th Amendment challenges to Trump’s eligibility.
Courts in Minnesota and Michigan recently ruled that Trump must appear on the ballots in these states.
Maine and Colorado hold primaries on March 5 during so-called “Super Tuesday,” when voters in more than a dozen states, including California and Texas, go to the polls.
Source: With information from AFP and AP
