Efforts to keep him off the ballot "threaten to disenfranchise tens of millions of Americans and... promise to unleash anarchy and bedlam" if other states follow Colorado's lead, according to Trump's lawyers.
According to Trump's legal team, there are a number of reasons to overturn the 4-3 decision by the Colorado Supreme Court. These include the fact that Trump did not participate in insurgency and the fact that the president is not encompassed by the amendment. Additionally, they argue that states cannot use the clause to remove candidates from the ballot unless Congress passes a law doing just that.
On February 8, the justices will hear arguments. Both the New Hampshire primary and the Iowa caucuses were won by Trump, who is now leading the Republican presidential field. Nikki Haley, a former United Nations ambassador, is the last formidable Republican opponent that Trump still faces.
However, in order for voters to know if Trump is qualified to be president, both camps have emphasized that the court must move swiftly.
Super Tuesday, March 5, is the day when the most delegates are up for grabs, including in Colorado, and the court is handling the case under a constricted schedule that might result in a ruling before then.
Anyone who took an oath to defend the Constitution but then "engaged in insurrection" against it is ineligible to occupy federal or state office, according to a two-sentence clause in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
Until hundreds of lawsuits were brought this year to prevent Trump from being included in the ballot, the clause had fallen into usage when Congress granted amnesty to the majority of former Confederates, whom it was intended to punish in 1872. In Colorado, just one of them was a success.
In a related matter, Trump is attempting to have a state court uphold a decision made by Shenna Bellows, the Democratic secretary of state of Maine, which states that Trump cannot be included on the ballot in that state due to his involvement in the attack on the Capitol. The decisions of the Colorado Supreme Court and the Maine secretary of state are both pending the outcome of the appeals.
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