Former US President Donald Trump has formally asked the US Supreme Court to overturn the Colorado state Supreme Court ruling that removed him from the state’s 2024 ballot under the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection clause,” sources familiar with the matter told CNN on Wednesday.
“This Court should grant certiorari to consider this question of paramount importance, summarily reverse the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling, and return the right to vote for their candidate of choice to the voters,” attorneys for the former president wrote in the filing.
Trump’s team is arguing that the “question of eligibility” for the presidency should be determined by Congress, not the states, and that the Colorado Supreme Court erred when it ruled that an insurrection occurred on January 6, 2021, and that Trump “engaged” in it.
In the controversial ruling, 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.”
In a separate filing, the Colorado Republican Party announced last week that it has asked the US Supreme Court to overturn the Colorado ruling.
Last week, Maine’s secretary of state removed Trump from that state’s 2024 primary ballot. The former President’s team on Tuesday appealed that decision in state court.