Colorado Secretary of State Urges Supreme Court to Expedite Trump Ballot Challenge

U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Jan. 2, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Attorneys for Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 2 to expedite a review that could determine whether former President Donald Trump is eligible to run for office.

“This Court’s resolution of the matter is important to ensure that all Coloradans’ votes are cast only for candidates who are qualified to hold the office of president,” the brief reads.

“Additionally, the Secretary asks the Court to resolve the question of Trump’s eligibility as expeditiously as possible in light of the upcoming election calendar. This will ensure that, to the greatest extent possible, all Coloradans know whether Trump is eligible to be elected president at the time they cast their ballots.”

Fast Track?

On Dec. 19, 2023, Colorado became the first state to disqualify President Trump as a candidate when the Colorado Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling and ordered that he be removed from the ballot. However, the court stayed its order until Jan. 4 with the condition that it would go into effect only if the order isn’t appealed.

This set things on an expedited course toward the U.S. Supreme Court, which many officials have predicted will settle the ongoing 14th Amendment challenges against President Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, across the nation once and for all.

Ms. Griswold was the original defendant in the case brought by six Colorado voters arguing she should not put President Trump on the ballot as he is disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

President Trump and the Colorado GOP are intervenors in the case, and on Dec. 27, 2023, the Colorado GOP filed a petition for immediate review at the U.S. Supreme Court, effectively blocking the removal of President Trump from the Colorado primary ballot.

The Colorado GOP, six voters, and the secretary’s office have all requested that the U.S. Supreme Court review the case on an expedited basis and give American voters a final answer on whether President Trump is eligible as a candidate.

The challenges hinge on the assumption that the events of Jan. 6, 2021, qualify as an “insurrection,” as Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was added to prevent those who took an oath of office and left to join the Confederacy—“insurrection” or “rebellions”—from returning to their positions after the Civil War.

In the court proceedings, Ms. Griswold has taken no official position on the matter of insurrection and in the most recent brief reiterated her position that she would defer to the courts to adjudicate eligibility. In personal statements, she has said she agrees with the state Supreme Court’s decision to disqualify the former president and urged the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm the decision.

Question Before the Court

The Colorado GOP had presented the Supreme Court with three questions: whether Section 3 applies to presidents, whether Section 3 is self-executing and allows individual states to decide to remove candidates without input from Congress, and whether denying a political party the right to put any candidates it chooses on the primary ballot violates the First Amendment.

Ms. Griswold asked the Supreme Court to review the first two questions but not the third. The original plaintiffs in Colorado had similarly asked the court to decline to review whether the GOP’s First Amendment rights were being violated with the state court order.

Attorneys for Ms. Griswold argued that ballots are for eligible candidates and that the First Amendment can’t force states to hold elections for ineligible candidates.

If the Supreme Court rejects the case by Jan. 4, President Trump will be removed from the primary ballot. If it rejects the case later, President Trump will remain on the Colorado primary ballot but the issues presented will remain open questions.

The Colorado official also would likely need to remove President Trump from the state’s general election ballot under the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling, but the U.S. Supreme Court will likely have received a number of other related petitions by then.

The Supreme Court had already rejected an earlier petition to review a Section 3 challenge to President Trump’s eligibility, but it had come from longshot candidate John Anthony Castro, who sued President Trump in federal court in more than two dozen states, arguing that he shouldn’t be made to compete with an ineligible candidate. Most of his cases have been dismissed either voluntarily or by judges for lack of standing or jurisdiction.

In Maine, the secretary of state also ruled President Trump ineligible and attorneys have appealed the decision in court. Any decision is expected to be appealed to the Maine Supreme Court and later the U.S. Supreme Court.

In Michigan, three courts have ruled against petitioners seeking to bar President Trump from the ballot, and the petitioners have indicated they will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court too.

Colorado Calendar

The Jan. 4 deadline is significant because Ms. Griswold must certify the primary ballots on Jan. 5, after which they are as good as printed.

On Jan. 20, county clerks will mail out the ballots to military and oversees voters, and between Feb. 12 and Feb. 16, ballots are mailed to other active registered voters.

The Colorado primary will be held on March 5.