Trump goes to Supreme Court over Colorado primary ruling

DONALD TRUMP has asked the US Supreme Court to intervene after Colorado’s top court removed him from the Republican primary ballot.

The former US president, 77, is contesting the Dec 19 ruling that disqualified him from holding office for engaging in insurrection leading up to the attack on the US Capitol.

The Republican frontrunner was barred from the ballot by the Colorado Supreme Court under a constitutional provision banning anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding public office. The court had already put its decision on hold until today to allow Mr Trump to appeal.

Yesterday, Steven Cheung, Mr Trump’s spokesman, called for “a clear, summary rejection of the Colorado Supreme Court’s wrongful ruling and the execution of a free and fair election this November”.

It is likely that the court will look favourably on Mr Trump. Its 6-3 conservative majority includes three of his own appointees. Their decision will shape a wider effort to disqualify Mr Trump from other state ballots as the 2024 election draws closer. The Colorado court ruling marked the first time in history that Section 3 of the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment – the so-called disqualification clause – had been used to deem a presidential candidate ineligible for the White House.

Mr Trump has also appealed to a Maine state court over the decision by the state’s top election official to bar him from the primary ballot in Maine under the same constitutional provision.

Mr Cheung accused Mr Biden and the Colorado court of “doing all they can to disenfranchise all American voters by attempting to remove President Trump, the leading candidate in the 2024 Presidential Election, from the primary ballot”.

Courts have rejected several lawsuits seeking to keep Mr Trump off the primary ballot in other states. Minnesota’s top court rebuffed an effort to disqualify him from the state’s Republican primary but did not rule on his overall eligibility to serve as president.