This is Act II of Donald Trump’s response to the states which consider him ineligible for the American presidential election of November 2024. The former Republican president asked the Supreme Court of the United States on Wednesday, January 3 to invalidate a decision of the highest court in Colorado, which caused a sensation in December by excluding him from the Republican primaries.
On Tuesday, Donald Trump had already appealed a similar decision in Maine taken this time by the Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, who had considered that he was “not fit to be president” in due to his actions during the invasion of the Capitol in Washington by his supporters, on January 6, 2021, who tried to prevent the certification of the victory of his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden. Unlike Colorado, Ms. Bellows’ decision will first be judged by the Maine Supreme Court, not the nation’s highest court.
Colorado and Maine relied on the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which excludes from public liability anyone who, after taking an oath to defend the Constitution, engages in acts of “rebellion” or “insurrection.” .
“The question of eligibility” is “reserved for Congress,” his lawyers argue
According to Donald Trump’s lawyers, the decision taken by the Colorado Supreme Court, if upheld, “will mark the first time in the history of the United States that the judicial system prevents voters from casting their ballot for the main candidate of ‘a big party in the presidential election’.
“The question of eligibility to serve as President of the United States is properly reserved for Congress – and not the state courts – to consider and decide,” they added in their petition to the Court. American Supreme Court, three of whose nine judges were appointed by Mr. Trump. They also argued that the invoked Section 3 of the 14th Amendment did not apply to Donald Trump as president, that January 6 was not an “insurrection,” and that the mogul did not “in any way participate in an insurrection.”
The decisions of Maine and Colorado only relate to the Republican primaries held in these two states on March 5. As long as legal proceedings continue, ballots must still include the name of the ex-president.
Several procedures have been launched in various states to block the path of the big favorite in the Republican primaries. Michigan and Minnesota rejected them. In the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump lost badly in Colorado and does not need to win the state to secure the Republican nomination or the presidency. But the final decision on Colorado could prompt courts or secretaries of state to remove his name from the ballot in other states where victory is decisive for getting elected.