Trump’s Legal Team Up Against Deadline To Appeal Colorado Decision Removing Him From Primary Ballot

Attorneys for President Trump are running up against a deadline to file an appeal of the ruling removing him from the primary ballot in Colorado, where he was deemed ineligible to compete on 14th Amendment grounds. In December, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Trump violated Section Three of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits those who have engaged in insurrection from serving in elected office in America.The section, added after the Civil War, says that anyone who has taken an oath “to support the Constitution of the United States” and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against America is disqualified from holding elected office or serving as an officer of America unless Congress votes to allow it by a two-thirds vote.Mr. Trump and his lawyers have argued that January 6 is not legally an insurrection and that the presidency is excluded from this disqualification provision. The Colorado Supreme Court did not agree with his attorneys.“We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us,” the court’s majority declared. “We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”One of the groups helping to bring lawsuits against Mr. Trump, Free Speech For People, has indicated that there may be more lawsuits coming in other states, though they did not disclose the details of their legal strategy to the Sun.Last week, Maine also ruled that Mr. Trump was disqualified from appearing on ballots there under the 14th Amendment. The decision was made by the secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, not by the state’s high court.Over the weekend, Ms. Bellows was the victim of “swatting,” during which a fake call is placed to get a SWAT team to respond to a location. Ms. Bellows was not home when the SWAT team arrived and the police said there was nothing suspicious at her home. Other government employees, like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, have been the victim of swatting recently as well.In Colorado, both members of the Supreme Court and the secretary of state, Jena Griswold, have received death threats since the ruling removing Mr. Trump from the ballot there.“Within three weeks of the lawsuit being filed, I received 64 death threats. I stopped counting after that,” Ms. Griswold said on X over the weekend. “I will not be intimidated. Democracy and peace will triumph over tyranny and violence.”Michigan ruled last week against a group of voters who tried to have Mr. Trump removed from the ballot, with the state Supreme Court citing significant differences between Colorado’s and Michigan’s election laws in the ruling and noting that Mr. Trump did not violate Michigan’s election laws by filing to run in the primary. Minnesota has also rejected a suit brought by a group of voters, also assisted by Free Speech For People, who were seeking to get Mr. Trump removed from the ballot in the state.As more states attempt to remove Mr. Trump from the ballot under the 14th Amendment and more lawsuits are filed on the issue, pressure is mounting for the Supreme Court to rule on the issue and tamp down potential electoral complications.In Colorado, the court’s decision was stayed until January 4 or until the Supreme Court rules on it, meaning that Mr. Trump and his attorneys only have two days to file an appeal. The Associated Press reports that an appeal is expected Tuesday.

Trump’s Legal Team Up Against Deadline To Appeal Colorado Decision Removing Him From Primary Ballot

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