The Colorado Republican Party has filed a petition before the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to overturn the decision from Colorado’s highest court to kick former President Donald Trump off the state’s 2024 presidential primary ballot.
The petition comes after a 4-3 decision from the Colorado Supreme Court to remove Trump from the ballot based on the view that he engaged in an insurrection on January 6, 2021. The Colorado GOP said that decision would have “catastrophic effects” and alter the course of American history if allowed to stand.
“For the first time in American history, a former President has been disqualified from the ballot, a political party has been denied the opportunity to put forward the presidential candidate of its choice, and the voters have been denied the ability to choose their Chief Executive through the electoral process,” the Colorado GOP said in its petition.
The petition added that chaos would ensue if the decision was allowed to stand because “any voter will have the power to sue to disqualify any political candidate, in Colorado or in any other jurisdiction that follows its lead.”
“This will not only distort the 2024 presidential election but will also mire courts henceforth in political controversies over nebulous accusations of insurrection,” Colorado’s GOP said, pointing out that Trump has not been charged or convicted of inciting an insurrection.
The state Supreme Court’s decision was based on the court’s interpretation that Trump could not hold the office of the presidency because he had violated Section Three of the 14th Amendment. In the petition, the Colorado GOP disagreed with the court’s interpretation, saying that it was flawed.
“Congress alone can enforce Section Three. Indeed, the whole point of the Fourteenth Amendment was to reign in rebellious states. To read Section Three as giving states veto power over presidential candidates would be to turn that amendment upside down,” the petition said.
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The petition also said that the state Supreme Court lacked the standing to kick Trump off the ballot.
“As a natural and inevitable result, the state has interfered with the Party’s ability to place on the general election ballot the candidate of its choice. And it has done so based on a subjective claim of insurrection the state lacks any constitutional authority to make,” the petition said.
Trump, who is leading the race for the GOP 2024 presidential nomination, has also jumped ahead of President Joe Biden in polling in numerous swing states.
Earlier this week, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected a similar effort to bar Trump from the state’s ballot.