By ARI BLAFF. Media: Nationalreview
The legal team representing Donald Trump filed an appeal late Wednesday afternoon challenging an earlier ruling by Colorado’s supreme court in December that found the former president was ineligible to appear on 2024 presidential primary ballots.
“This Court,” the filing reads, should “summarily reverse the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling, and return the right to vote for their candidate of choice to the voters.”
“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. By considering the question of President Trump’s eligibility and barring him from the ballot, the Colorado Supreme Court arrogated Congress’ authority,” the appeal continued.
On December 19, the Colorado supreme court ruled that Trump should be barred from the 2024 presidential state ballots by citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified after the Civil War to disqualify former Confederates from office.
The section outlines that:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, 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. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
After the announcement, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheug said the former president and his staff “have full confidence that the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly rule in our favor and finally put an end to these unAmerican lawsuits.”
Following the Colorado ruling, the Michigan supreme court sided with a lower appeals court, arguing that Trump could remain on state ballots despite accusations the former president violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution by engaging “in insurrection or rebellion.”
“At the moment, the only event about to occur is the presidential primary election. But as explained, whether Trump is disqualified is irrelevant to his placement on that particular ballot,” the Michigan court of appeals earlier ruled dismissing the case against Trump.
The plaintiffs, Free Speech for People, failed to identify any “analogous provision in the Michigan Election Law that requires someone seeking the office of President of the United States to attest to their legal qualification to hold the office,” Michigan supreme court associate justice Elizabeth Welch wrote, contextualizing the ruling in comparison to Colorado’s election law. The pressure group mounted a similarly unsuccessful bid in Minnesota and recently filed a case in Oregon.
Shortly afterward, the Maine secretary of state Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, disqualified Trump from the ballot referencing the identical amendment. “The events of January 6, 2021 were unprecedented and tragic,” Bellows wrote in her decision.
“They were an attack not only upon the Capitol and government officials, but also an attack on the rule of law. The evidence here demonstrates that they occurred at the behest of, and with the knowledge and support of, the outgoing President. The U.S. Constitution does not tolerate an assault on the foundations of our government, and [Maine law] requires me to act in response.”
The Trump campaign vowed to overturn the decision. “We know both the Constitution and the American people are on our side in this fight. President Trump’s dominating campaign has a commanding lead in the polls that has dramatically expanded as Crooked Joe Biden’s presidency continues to fail,” Cheung said in a statement at the time.
The Colorado supreme court ruling will be stayed until early January, pending appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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