The Colorado Republican Party announced on Wednesday it has asked the US Supreme Court to overturn the unprecedented state Supreme Court ruling that removed Donald Trump from Colorado’s 2024 ballot, CNN reported.
The Colorado GOP was also a party in the case and is fighting to preserve its right to include Trump on its March primary ballot. Trump has not yet filed his appeal, which is expected soon.
The appeal means the state court’s pause on the ruling – which was set to expire January 4 – will be indefinitely extended until the US Supreme Court announces whether it will take up the appeal, and, if it does, until it issues a final decision in the matter.
In the controversial ruling last week, the Colorado Supreme Court cited a little-known provision in the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution.
Section 3 of the Civil War-era 14th Amendment says: “No person shall ... hold any office, civil or military, under the United States ... who, having previously taken an oath ... as an officer of the United States, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
The Colorado judge who presided over the trial granted the state GOP’s request to intervene in the case shortly after the lawsuit was filed. In their filing Wednesday, the party asked the US Supreme Court to take up the case and restore Trump’s name on the Colorado primary ballot.
“By excluding President Trump from the ballot, the Colorado Supreme Court engaged in an unprecedented disregard for the First Amendment right of political parties to select the candidates of their choice and a usurpation of the rights of the people to choose their elected officials,” lawyers representing the party wrote, according to CNN.
In addition to the First Amendment argument, the Colorado GOP said the state Supreme Court incorrectly broadened the Constitution’s “insurrectionist ban” to apply to presidents, even though the office isn’t explicitly mentioned in the provision. They also claimed only Congress – not courts or state election officials – can enforce the ban.
“Rejecting a long history of precedent, a state Supreme Court has now concluded that individual litigants, state courts, and secretaries of state in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia have authority to enforce Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the state party wrote.
Wednesday’s petition came hours after the Michigan Supreme Court rejected a similar 14th Amendment lawsuit, keeping Trump on the ballot there.