Supreme Court to decide on Trump's Colorado ballot appeal

Arguments on the matter will be held in February in an effort to reach a decision quickly

By Kelly McClure

Nights & Weekends Editor

Published January 5, 2024 6:40PM (EST)

Former U.S. President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump gestures at the end of a campaign event in Waterloo, Iowa, on December 19, 2023.  (KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Former U.S. President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump gestures at the end of a campaign event in Waterloo, Iowa, on December 19, 2023. (KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

After appealing Colorado's decision to ban Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot, his team of attorneys are now awaiting a final verdict on the matter from the Supreme Court, with arguments to be held in February as the clock is ticking on Trump's campaign.

According to AP News, "the justices acknowledged the need to reach a decision quickly, as voters will soon begin casting presidential primary ballots across the country," highlighting the significance of the court "considering for the first time the meaning and reach of a provision of the 14th Amendment barring some people who 'engaged in insurrection' from holding public office." This will be the first time the high court has found cause to intervene in a presidential election since Bush v. Gore in 2000 after the Florida Supreme Court ordered a statewide recount of all undervotes, over 61,000 ballots, that the vote tabulation machines had missed. When the Bush campaign called upon the Supreme Court in that instance, asking for the recount to be halted, Justice Antonin Scalia urged his colleagues to grant the stay (which they did) under the belief that all the manual recounts being performed in Florida's counties were illegitimate.

“In our system of ‘government of the people, by the people, [and] for the people,’ Colorado’s ruling is not and cannot be correct,” attorneys for the former president wrote in their petition to the court.

 

 

 

 

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