The US Supreme Court will be hearing Donald Trump’s appeal against the ruling by Colorado’s highest court that would keep him off the presidential primary ballot in the western state.
The conservative-majority Supreme Court, which includes three justices appointed by the former president, said it would hear oral arguments in the high-stakes election case on February 8.
The Colorado Supreme Court prevented Trump last month from appearing on the Republican presidential primary ballot in the state because of his role in the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol by his supporters.
Trump’s lawyers pleaded the US Supreme Court earlier this week to hear the case and give its verdict against the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling.”
According to them the Colorado ruling, “if allowed to stand, will mark the first time in the history of the United States when the judiciary prevented voters from casting ballots for the leading major-party presidential candidate.”
In addition the lawyers also marked that “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.” In addition an appeal against the ruling by the top election official in Maine has also been lodged by Trump, against keeping him off the primary ballot in the northeastern state.
The former President’s lawyers requested the Maine Superior Court to deny the ruling by Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who is also a Democrat. The lawyers termed her as a “biased decision-maker” who “acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner.”
The Colorado Supreme Court and Maine secretary of state both ruled that Trump is ineligible to appear on the primary ballot because of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.
Under the Section Three of the 14th Amendment people are barred from holding public office if they engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” after pledging to support and defend the Constitution.
The amendment was ratified in 1868 after the US Civil War and aimed at preventing supporters of the slave-holding Confederacy from being elected to Congress or from holding federal positions.
Meanwhile Trump in two separate cases, is scheduled to go on trial in Washington in March for conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden. He has also been charged with racketeering in Georgia for allegedly conspiring to influence the election results in the southern state.
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