Supreme Court to hear arguments over Trump on Colorado’s 2024 ballot

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - The Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments over whether former President Donald Trump’s name should be on the ballot in Colorado. The monumental case has implications for every state in the country.

Last December, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump was ineligible to run for the White House under the insurrection clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment — originally adopted after the Civil War.

As a result, Trump’s name was removed from the state’s presidential primary ballot. Trump is challenging that unprecedented decision. The Republican frontrunner said this ruling could potentially disenfranchise tens of millions of voters nationwide.

Michele Goodwin, Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University, weighed in. “There are other states where these are matters that have come up and it’s urgent. The voters in those states want to know, and both sides, quite honestly, want clarity in this matter, and they actually deserve clarity,” she said.

A Colorado district court judge has already determined that Trump incited an insurrection for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The nine justices on the Supreme Court — including three nominated by Trump — must now determine whether the insurrection clause was intended to cover the presidency.

“Interestingly, it’s a Court where the majority has claimed itself to be originalist and that they want to look at the original text and the original meaning of the Constitution,” said Goodwin. She added, “Well, if that’s the case, then this means that it’s rather complicated for the former president, because if one looks at the original meaning and text of the 14th Amendment, Section three, it’s almost as if it were dreamed up for a moment, like January 6th.”

The Court will likely return a decision quickly. Colorado and Maine, a state that has also removed Trump’s name from the ballot, have their primaries on March 5.

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