As of: January 19, 2024, 3:09 p.m
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Donald Trump must stand trial.
If the judiciary decides against him, “Pandora’s box would be opened,” warns the ex-president.
Washington, DC - Donald Trump urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to ensure his name can appear on ballots nationwide, warning of "chaos and turmoil" if the Supreme Court does not overturn the Colorado Supreme Court's decision, which disqualified the former president for his actions on and before January 6, 2021.
Trump's lawyer called on the justices to put a "swift and decisive end" to efforts in more than 30 states to bar him from the primaries and general elections.
The decision to remove his name from the ballot invokes a section of the 14th Amendment that bars those who have participated in an insurrection from holding office.
Decision in Colorado: Trump speaks of “riot”,
The effort to disqualify the leading Republican candidate in the 2024 primary, his attorney Jonathan Mitchell wrote, "threatens to disenfranchise millions of Americans" and "promises to unleash chaos and turmoil if other state courts and officials follow Colorado's lead." “.
Those comments were reminiscent of words Trump made last week after an appeals court hearing in a separate case in which Trump's lawyers said he should be immune from prosecution.
Trump is accused of trying to overturn the 2020 US election.
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In a subsequent call with reporters, Trump warned that if the criminal charges against him hurt his candidacy, “the country would be in turmoil.
This is a very bad thing.
It's a very bad precedent.
As we said, it’s opening Pandora’s box.”
Adviser Walt Nauta raises a curtain for former President Donald Trump as he arrives at his caucus night watch party in Des Moines, Iowa, on Monday.
© Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post
The question of whether Trump can be protected from prosecution is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and will likely also come to the Supreme Court.
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The brief filed Thursday was a precursor to oral arguments in the Colorado election case that the Supreme Court has scheduled for Feb. 8 - an expedited schedule that ensures the justices will play a major role in shaping this year's presidential election.
The Colorado ruling was the first time a court found that a presidential candidate could be disqualified from voting under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment after the Civil War.
This provision prevents rebels who have previously taken an oath of office from returning to power.
A Maine judge this week declined to immediately rule on whether Trump's name can appear on the ballot for that state's primary, saying she wanted to wait for the Supreme Court to address the issue in the Colorado case.
Trump denies accusations of insurrection
Regardless of how the justices decide, the issue is expected to be resolved nationwide since the primaries started with Trump's victory in Iowa.
The next primary election is Tuesday in New Hampshire.
In his opening brief, Trump reiterated the former president's claims that the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was not an insurrection.
He says Section 3 does not apply to the office of president and state courts cannot enforce the constitutional provision.
And finally, he says Colorado rules don't allow a state court to order the chief election official to remove a candidate from the primary.
And even if President Trump were covered by Section 3, he has done nothing that could be described as “insurrection.”
“The court should reverse the ruling on these grounds and end these unconstitutional disqualification efforts once and for all,” his attorney told the justices.
Ahead of the highly anticipated debate over Trump's eligibility, dozens of advocacy groups, academics, politicians and former administration officials have begun filing briefs in support of either the former president or the six Colorado voters challenging Trump's eligibility.
Lawyers for these voters have said that the Constitution clearly states that insurrectionists may not hold office, that it applies to presidents and that it need not be enforced by an act of Congress.
Nearly 180 congressional Republicans support Trump legally
In urging the justices to consider the matter quickly, they said the Supreme Court should uphold Colorado's finding that the former president intentionally incited his supporters to violence on Jan. 6 to disrupt the certification of the election - and made the attack worse in the process.
An amicus brief in support of keeping Trump on the ballot, filed Thursday, included the signatures of nearly 180 congressional Republicans.
Among them was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has largely stayed out of the 2024 Republican presidential race and previously claimed Trump was responsible for provoking the 2021 insurrection.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on January 19, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.