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The attempts to reverse the decision to disqualify Donald Trump from the presidential ballots in Colorado via the U.S. Supreme Court have been condemned by a legal expert.
Joe Dudek, a trial and appellate attorney, hit out at the arguments made by the National Republican Senatorial Committee as they submitted their legal argument to the country's highest court as to why Trump, the frontrunner in the GOP primary, should remain on the presidential ballots in Colorado.
The appeal from the Republican Senate campaign group is separate to one filed by Trump himself after he was banned from running for president in Colorado, following the state's Supreme Court ruling he violated the Constitution's insurrection clause with his actions around the January 6 attack.
In a historic ruling in late December, the Colorado Supreme Court banned Trump from running for president in the state for violating Section 3 of the 14th Amendment during the January 6 riot. The amendment, introduced in the wake of the Civil War, states that a person who "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" after taking an oath of office to support the Constitution should be barred from running for office again.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Dudek suggested that the arguments put forward by NRSC are "unsalvageable" and will not help the former president's attempt to remain on the Colorado ballot.
"I am glad this brief exists, because it exposes the Trump position on [Section 3] for what it is: Wholly irreconcilable with standard modes of constitutional interpretation, and unsalvageable by even the most skilled and experienced SCOTUS advocates," Dudek wrote.
The NRSC has been contacted for comment via email.
In their appeal to the Supreme Court to keep him on the ballots in Colorado, the NRSC argued that the Colorado Supreme Court had overstepped its jurisdiction when it ruled that Trump cannot run for office, and had "altered" the qualifications for the office of president.
The filings also argue that the wording of Section 3 identifies a disqualification from "serving in certain offices," but does not disqualify a covered person from running for office.
"So even if the Colorado Supreme Court were correct that President Trump cannot take office on Inauguration Day, that court had no basis to hold that he cannot run for office on Election Day," it adds.
The NRSC said that if the decision to remove Trump from the Colorado ballots is not overturned then it will "unleash electoral chaos" in the upcoming ballots.
"Even worse, it threatens to decide the outcome of the 2024 election by stripping the American people of the right to elect the President and transferring that right to state courts," the amicus brief said.
"The right of all citizens to participate in free and fair elections and to vote for the candidate of their choice is the Constitution's bedrock guarantee of American democracy," the brief adds. "The Colorado Supreme Court's decision barring President Trump from the Republican Party's primary election ballot breaches that guarantee and, if left standing, threatens to thwart the democratic process and the will of the American people in 2024 and beyond."
In their own filing to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Trump's legal team said Congress, and not the courts, should determine who should be allowed to run for president, as well as arguing the 14th Amendment does not apply to Trump as he was not an "officer" of the United States while president.
Trump's team also argued that Trump's actions around the January 6 attack, where a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol in support of the former president's false election fraud claims, did not amount to an insurrection.
A similar decision to ban Trump from running for office was also recently handed down by Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, which Trump is appealing.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, and Florida ... Read more