The Supreme Court in the United States of America has said that it will hear a landmark case to determine whether Donald Trump is eligible to run for president.
The justices decided to consider Mr. Trump’s appeal against Colorado’s decision to bar him from the state’s ballot for 2024.
The decision in this case will be implemented nationally, and the trial is scheduled for February.
Several states are pursuing lawsuits to disqualify Trump from running for office on the grounds that he participated in an act of rebellion during the US Capitol riot that occurred three years ago.
The legal challenge hinges on whether a constitutional amendment from the Civil War era makes Mr. Trump ineligible to run for office.
The attorneys general from 27 states submitted a brief urging the Supreme Court to overturn Colorado’s judgement, which led to the court’s decision to consider Mr Trump’s appeal.
They contend in it that Mr. Trump’s exclusion from the vote would “create widespread chaos.”
The submission further read, “Most obviously, it casts confusion into an election cycle that is just weeks away… Beyond that, it upsets the respective roles of the Congress, the States, and the courts.”
Although the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment prohibits anybody who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding federal office, the attorneys representing the former president contend that Trump is exempt from this provision.
They took the argument further by saying, “The Colorado Supreme Court decision would unconstitutionally disenfranchise millions of voters in Colorado and likely be used as a template to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters nationwide.”
Additionally, Mr. Trump has filed an appeal challenging the Maine election officials’ decision to remove him from the ballot.
Colorado Secretary of State, Jena Griswold, after the Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday, said that she had certified the state’s ballots for the forthcoming presidential primary elections and that Mr. Trump’s name was on them.
The presidential candidates that will run in November’s election will be determined in part by the results of each state’s primary elections.
Colorado’s is scheduled for early March, not long after it is anticipated that the Supreme Court will rule on Mr. Trump’s case.
Griswold, in a statement, said, “The United States Supreme Court has accepted the case, and Donald Trump will appear on the ballot as a result.”
The Colorado Supreme Court’s divided 4–3 ruling last month is the first instance in US history that the 14th Amendment has been applied to remove a presidential contender from the race.
The Supreme Court will examine the interpretation of the provision for the first time.
In November’s election, Mr. Trump is the current front-runner for the Republican nomination against the Democratic incumbent, President Joe Biden.
Attempts to remove Mr. Trump from office have been rejected by courts in Minnesota and Michigan. There are still outstanding cases, one of which is in Oregon.
With three justices that were nominated by President Trump during his administration, the US Supreme Court has a conservative majority.
However, they decisively decided against him in his cases contesting his loss to Mr. Biden in 2020.
On Friday, the court decided to accelerate the case, setting a date for oral arguments on February 8.
The opening brief from Mr. Trump’s legal team is to be submitted by January 18th.
By January 31st, the organisation advocating for Mr. Trump’s disqualification must present its case.
The involvement of the highest court in the United States has evoked analogies to the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, which resulted in a Supreme Court case.
By stopping Florida’s vote recount, the conservative-majority court effectively gave Mr. Bush the win.
On the day of the US Capitol riot, supporters of Trump stormed Congress as senators were confirming Joe Biden’s election victory.
The then-president called on protestors to “fight like hell” and march “peacefully” to the Capitol on that day, repeating bogus accusations of widespread election fraud. The event was staged outside the White House.
Republicans who oppose Mr. Trump contend that he ought to be disqualified for his behaviour during the violence as well as for his and his campaign’s attempts to void the election results in areas where he lost.
Although prosecutions in federal court and a state court in Georgia centre on Mr. Trump’s purported attempts to influence the results of the 2020 presidential election, he has not been charged with inciting insurrection in any of the cases.
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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