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Donald Trump’s ballot eligibility is now at the U.S. Supreme Court's doorstep, but we don’t yet know whether or when the justices will take up the appeal. The Colorado GOP on Wednesday petitioned the nation’s high court to review the Colorado Supreme Court decision disqualifying the former president from the state’s 2024 presidential primary ballot.
Trump may file his own petition as well, but he’ll likely be on the state’s primary ballot either way. That’s because when the state high court ruled against the leading GOP candidate last week, it paused its ruling from taking effect until Jan. 4, the day before the state’s primary ballot certification deadline. The Colorado Supreme Court also said that, if U.S. Supreme Court review is sought by Jan. 4, then the ruling stays paused until the U.S. justices decide. Now such review has been sought, and the matter is in the justices’ hands.
These are the three questions the state GOP wants the high court to review:
1. Whether the President falls within the list of officials subject to the disqualification provision of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment?
2. Whether Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment is self-executing to the extent of allowing states to remove candidates from the ballot in the absence of any Congressional action authorizing such process?
3. Whether the denial to a political party of its ability to choose the candidate of its choice in a presidential primary and general election violates that party’s First Amendment Right of Association?
If the U.S. Supreme Court takes the case, it could choose to answer any combination of those questions or whatever issue or issues it wants. But with challenges against Trump’s eligibility pending across the country — including a decision in Maine that could come any day — the justices can use the Colorado case to provide a nationwide resolution to a crucial issue that isn’t going away.
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