Trump Pleads With Supreme Court To Let Him Stay On Colorado Ballot

The former president "did not 'engage in' anything that qualifies as 'insurrection,'" his legal team argued.

Donald Trump filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday making his case for staying on Colorado’s Republican primary ballot, which a lower court ruled he could not appear on because he violated the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment.

In the filing, the former president’s lawyers argued that Trump is not subject to that clause because the president is not considered an “officer of the United States” and that, even if he had been, “he did not ‘engage in’ anything that qualifies as ‘insurrection.’”

The efforts to remove Trump from the ballot, which are underway in dozens of states, “threaten to disenfranchise tens of millions of Americans and ... promise to unleash chaos and bedlam if other state courts and state officials follow Colorado’s lead and exclude the likely Republican presidential nominee from their ballots,” the brief argued.

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled last month that Trump should be removed from the ballot because he’s ineligible for office, citing a 14th Amendment clause that bars from state or federal office anyone who took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution but then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against it. The court pointed to Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, saying he very clearly encouraged a violent mob of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol that day.

“We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” the Colorado court wrote in its ruling. “We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”