The Supreme Court Will Decide on Trump Ballot Ban

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether former President Donald Trump can be disqualified from appearing on Colorado’s Republican primary ballot over his actions related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

With primary season approaching, the justices signaled the case would be heard quickly, scheduling oral arguments for February 8.

Last month, Colorado’s Supreme Court disqualified Trump from the state ballot based on a Civil War-era clause in the 14th Amendment that bars people who have taken an oath to support the Constitution from holding office if they have engaged in insurrection or “given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

A little over a week after Colorado’s decision, Maine’s secretary of state barred Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause.

“We welcome a fair hearing at the Supreme Court to argue against the bad-faith, election-interfering, voter-suppressing, Democrat-backed and Biden-led, 14th Amendment abusing decision to remove President Trump’s name from the 2024 ballot in the state of Colorado,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.

Cheung added: “The so-called ‘ballot-challenge cases’ are all part of a well-funded effort by left-wing, political activists hell-bent on stopping the lawful reelection of President Trump this November, even if it means disenfranchising voters. President Trump is dominating the polls, and the Biden presidency has failed all Americans. We are confident that the fair-minded Supreme Court will unanimously affirm the civil rights of President Trump, and the voting rights of all Americans in a ruling that will squash all of the remaining ballot challenge hoaxes once and for all.”

Several other states are still weighing challenges that seek to remove Trump from the 2024 primary ballot, but Trump has maintained that he did not engage in an insurrection, accusing those filing lawsuits against him of attempting to interfere with the election.

Trump filed an appeal in state court to challenge last month’s decision by Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows that would block him from the state’s primary ballot. In a statement about her decision, Bellows accused Trump of encouraging violence among his supporters.

“The record establishes that Mr. Trump, over the course of several months and culminating on January 6, 2021, used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol to prevent certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power,” Bellows said.

She added: “I likewise conclude that Mr. Trump was aware of the likelihood for violence and at least initially supported its use given he both encouraged it with incendiary rhetoric and took no timely action to stop it.”

Update 01/05/24, 7:05 p.m.: This article was updated with further information and comment.