Trump appeals to US Supreme Court over Colorado ballot ban
Donald Trump urged the US Supreme Court on Wednesday to toss out a ruling by Colorado's highest court that would keep him off the presidential primary ballot in the western state.
The Colorado Supreme Court barred Trump last month from appearing on the Republican primary ballot in the state because of his role in the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol by his supporters.
Lawyers for the former Republican president, in a 43-page filing, asked the conservative-dominated Supreme Court, which includes three Trump appointees, to agree to hear the case and «summarily reverse the Colorado Supreme Court's ruling.»
They said the ruling, «if allowed to stand, will mark the first time in the history of the United States that the judiciary has prevented voters from casting ballots for the leading major-party presidential candidate.
»The question of eligibility to serve as President of the United States is properly reserved for Congress, not the state courts, to consider and decide," they added.
The Colorado case filing comes one day after the 77-year-old Trump lodged an appeal against a ruling by the top election official in Maine that would keep him off the primary ballot in the northeastern state.
Trump's attorneys urged the Maine Superior Court to toss out the ruling by Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, calling her a «biased decisionmaker» who «acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner.»
The Colorado Supreme Court and Maine secretary of state both ruled that Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is ineligible to appear on the primary ballot because of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.
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