The lawyers of former US President Donald Trump have warned of “chaos and bedlam” if states are allowed to bar him from the ballot for this year’s presidential election.
Last month, the Colorado Supreme Court had said that Trump is constitutionally ineligible to run in 2024 because the 14th Amendment’s ban on insurrectionists holding office covers his conduct on January 6, 2021, the day of the Capitol riots, reports CNN.
“The Court should reverse the Colorado decision because President Trump is not even subject to section 3, as the President is not an ‘officer of the United States’ under the Constitution. And even if President Trump were subject to section 3 he did not ‘engage in’ anything that qualifies as ‘insurrection’,” Trump’s attorneys said in a brief submitted to the US Supreme Court on Thursday.
The efforts “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”, the lawyers further argued.
Earlier this month, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, accepting an appeal brought by Trump.
The justices are separately involved in other matters that could impact the federal criminal case against the former President, CNN reported.
The Colorado ruling has been on pause pending the US Supreme Court’s resolution of the case, and the state’s top election official has certified the 2024 presidential primary ballots with Trump’s name on the Republican ballot.
If the justices conclude Trump is ineligible for public office before Colorado’s primary, then any votes cast for him would not be counted
Oral arguments in the Colorado case are scheduled for February 8.
