Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys argued that his exclusion from the Colorado ballot was due to a “dubious interpretation” of the 14th Amendment in their brief to the Supreme Court on Thursday.
“The Court should put a swift and decisive end to these ballot-disqualification efforts, which threaten to disenfranchise tens of millions of Americans and which promise to unleash chaos and bedlam if other state courts and state officials follow Colorado’s lead and exclude the likely Republican presidential nominee from their ballots,” Trump’s legal team wrote.
They pleaded with the justices to reverse the Colorado ballot disqualification and put a stop to other legal challenges taking place across the country.
Forbes has more on the extraordinary brief:
In the Colorado Supreme Court’s contested decision to remove Trump from the state ballot, the court argued the former president violated section three of the 14th Amendment, which holds that those who have taken an oath “to support the Constitution of the United States” can’t hold office if they’ve engaged in insurrection—a reference to Trump’s actions during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
Trump’s lawyers argued in the filing Thursday that the former president isn’t subject to section three and that even if he was, “he did not ‘engage in’ anything that qualifies as ‘insurrection.’”
The lawyers also argued section three bars individuals from “holding office, not from seeking or winning election to office.”
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in Trump’s case on Feb. 8.
At present, only Colorado and Maine have taken action to remove Trump from their ballots.
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