Washington — The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to review a politically explosive decision from Colorado’s top court that found former President Donald Trump ineligible for the presidency and would leave him off the state’s primary ballot, stepping into a high-stakes legal showdown that could have major ramifications for the 2024 presidential election.
At the center of the dispute is the Constitution’s so-called insurrection clause, a Civil War-era provision that bars a person who has sworn an oath to defend the Constitution and then engages in insurrection from holding public office. The court scheduled arguments in the case for Feb. 8.
The Colorado Supreme Court concluded in a divided, 4-3 decision on Dec. 19 that Trump is disqualified from serving as president because of his conduct related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, and barred him from being listed on the state’s primary ballot. But the state’s high court paused its decision to allow the former president and the Colorado GOP time to appeal.
The Supreme Court’s decision to review the Colorado ruling means Trump, currently the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, will be included on the state’s primary ballot, unless the court rules that he should be excluded before the ballots are finalized. Colorado and more than a dozen states will hold their Republican primaries on Super Tuesday, March 5, but ballots must be certified weeks in advance.
The court fight over Trump’s eligibility for the White House sends the Supreme Court into new territory, as it has never before ruled directly on the 155-year-old provision at the center of the case, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. It also puts the nation’s highest court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, in a position to potentially play a pivotal role in the 2024 election — the outcome of the case could decide whether Trump can appear on the primary ballot not only in Colorado, but in the 49 other states.
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