The Colorado Republican Party petitioned the US Supreme Court on Wednesday to overturn a state Supreme Court ruling that barred former President Donald Trump from appearing on Colorado’s 2024 primary ballot.
“The Republican Party has been irreparably harmed by the decision” to deem Trump, 77, ineligible for the White House, the appeal, filed on behalf of the Colorado GOP by the nonprofit American Center for Law and Justice, states.
“The state has interfered in the primary election by unreasonably restricting the Party’s ability to select its candidates,” the 45-page petition argues. “As a natural and inevitable result, the state has interfered with the Party’s ability to place on the general election ballot the candidate of its choice. And it has done so based on a subjective claim of insurrection the state lacks any constitutional authority to make.”
In an unprecedented ruling, the Colorado Supreme Court last week ordered that Trump’s name be stricken from state primary ballots, citing the US Constitution’s insurrection clause in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
It’s the first time in history that the insurrection clause has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.
“We’ve been saying from the day we took this case that this was one that would end up at the U.S. Supreme Court,” a joint statement from Jay Sekulow, chief counsel at the ACLJ, and Jordan Sekulow, the executive director of the group, read.
The Sekulow brothers called the Colorado Supreme Court’s Dec. 19 decision a “dangerously flawed twisting of the 14th Amendment” and “the greatest election interference case in U.S. history.”
“The drastic effects of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision on the 2024 primary election necessitate this Court’s immediate review, during this current term,” the petition states. “The prompt hearing of this case is necessary to prevent the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision from having an irreparable effect on the electoral process.”
The filing argues that Trump, as president, was “not an officer of the United States covered within the disqualification provision” of the 14th Amendment, and the insurrection clause is not “a self-executing authority for state courts and litigants to use as a sword against presidential candidates.”
The petition also claims that the Colorado Supreme Court decision “violates the Colorado Republican Party’s First Amendment associational right to choose its own political candidates.”
“The drastic effects of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision on the 2024 primary election necessitate this Court’s immediate review, during this current term. The prompt hearing of this case is necessary to prevent the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision from having an irreparable effect on the electoral process,” the petition argues.
The Colorado GOP filed a motion to expedite alongside the petition.
The Centennial State’s GOP primary will take place on March 5.
By filing an appeal, the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling is automatically stayed – keeping Trump on the ballot – until the US Supreme Court takes action on the case.
“However, there is an avalanche of similar cases being filed around the country, so the Supreme Court’s definitive and prompt review in this matter is essential,” the Sekulows argue.