Attorneys for former President Donald Trump challenged Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that he wasn’t eligible for the state’s ballot on Thursday, warning the U.S. Supreme Court in a brief that failing to overturn the decision would lead to electoral turmoil.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Trump was disqualified from appearing on the ballot in the 2024 election in a 4-3 decision on Dec. 19, nine days before Democratic Secretary of State Shenna Bellows of Maine declared Trump ineligible to appear on her state’s ballot as well. Attorneys for Trump noted that over 60 lawsuits had been filed to bar Trump from the ballot.
“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 attorneys said in the brief.
Hundreds of people stormed the Capitol building during the certification of the electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021.
“The Court should also reverse because nothing that President Trump did in response to the 2020 election or on January 6, 2021, even remotely qualifies as ‘insurrection,’” Trump’s attorneys said in the brief. “No prosecutor has attempted to charge President Trump with insurrection under 28 U.S.C. § 2383 in the three years since January 6, 2021, despite the relentless and ongoing investigations of President Trump. And for good reason: President Trump’s words that day called for peaceful and patriotic protest and respect for law and order.”
Special counsel Jack Smith secured a four-count indictment against Trump relating to his efforts to contest the results of the 2020 election in August on charges that included conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted and conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the January 6 proceedings. Smith did not charge Trump with insurrection.
“President Trump never told his supporters to enter the Capitol, and he did not lead, direct, or encourage any of the unlawful acts that occurred at the Capitol—either in his speech at the Ellipse or in any of his statements or communications before or during the events of January 6, 2021,” the brief from Trump’s attorneys said. “President Trump also sent tweets throughout the day instructing his supporters to ‘remain peaceful’ and ‘[s]tay peaceful,’ and he released a video telling the crowd ‘to go home now.’”
Harold Hutchison on January 18, 2024
