Atlanta News First is reporting. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr joined 26 GOP attorneys general nationwide in a Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024, court brief to keep former President Donald Trump on the Colorado ballot.
The “friend of the court” filing came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court indicated Friday it would determine if the 45th president may be kept off the ballot for his purported 2020 election loss overturning efforts.
“Voters, not lawyers, choose the President,” the brief stated. Colorado Supreme Court displayed no restraint. Instead, it excluded a former President and leading candidate from its presidential vote in a closely contested election.
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“The state court’s decision to declare former President Donald Trump an insurrectionist under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment has far-reaching consequences,” the brief read.
Trump was removed from the 2024 ballot by the Colorado Supreme Court on Dec. 19, 2023, under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. The ruling by a Democratic governor-appointed court was the first time Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was utilized to disqualify a presidential contender.
As presidential primaries begin nationwide, the U.S. Supreme Court justices acknowledged the need to decide fast. The court accepted Trump’s appeal in a Colorado case involving his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
The justices’ nearly monthlong winter holiday will be interrupted by arguments on Feb. 8, emphasizing the urgency. The court may decide before Super Tuesday on March 5, when most delegates are up for grabs, including in Colorado, due to the tight deadline.
For the first time, the court will interpret a 14th Amendment provision banning “engaged in insurrection” from public office. The amendment passed in 1868 after the Civil War. It’s rarely used, thus the nation’s highest court has never interpreted it.
Last month, Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that Trump should not be on the Republican primary ballot. The 14th Amendment was first used to bar a presidential candidate from the ballot.
Trump is also appealing to the state court Maine’s Democratic secretary of state, Shenna Bellows,’ cancellation of his ballot eligibility due to his Capitol attack role. The Colorado Supreme Court and Maine Secretary of State’s findings are pending appeals.
The high court’s intervention, which both sides requested, is the most direct in a presidential race since Bush v. Gore in 2000 when a conservative majority ruled for Republican George W. Bush. Only Justice Clarence Thomas remains from that court.
Three of the nine Supreme Court justices were nominated by Trump. Still, they have frequently ruled against him in 2020 election-related litigation and his efforts to hide Jan. 6 and tax return records from congressional committees.
Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh have voted in favor of conservative decisions that eliminated the five-decade-old constitutional right to abortion, increased gun rights, and rejected college admissions affirmative action.
Democratic senators have urged Thomas to step aside from the case since his wife supports Trump’s effort to reverse the election, which he lost to Joe Biden. Thomas is unlikely to concur, but all justices appeared to be participating on Friday. Thomas recused himself from only one 2020 election case, involving former legal clerk John Eastman, and Trump’s opponents haven’t requested him to recuse.
The 4-3 Colorado judgment cites Gorsuch’s federal judge opinion in that state. Gorsuch’s ruling affirmed Colorado’s decision to remove a naturalized citizen from the presidential ballot because he was born in Guyana and didn’t meet constitutional standards. Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack disqualified him, the court ruled. That day, the Republican president rallied supporters outside the White House and urged them to “fight like hell” before walking to the Capitol.
The two-sentence language in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prohibits state and federal office for anybody who swore to protect the constitution and subsequently “engaged in insurrection” against it. After Congress granted amnesty to most former confederates in 1872, the provision was forgotten until dozens of lawsuits were filed to keep Trump off the vote this year. Only the Colorado one worked.
Trump requested the court overrule the Colorado verdict without hearing arguments. Trump’s lawyers stated that the Colorado Supreme Court decision would unconstitutionally disenfranchise millions of Colorado voters and potentially tens of millions nationwide.
They believe Trump should win for several reasons, including that Jan. 6 was not an insurrection. If it did, Trump had not incited mutiny, they wrote. They also say the insurrection clause is not applicable to the president and Congress must act, not states.