Hours before the third anniversary of the storming of the Capitol, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday accepted the case on the expulsion of former President Donald Trump from the Republican Party primary in Colorado.
The decision puts the court in the position of establishing a nationwide stance on whether the former president can participate in the 2024 presidential election or whether, on the contrary, the role he played in the 2021 assault on the Capitol makes him ineligible.
In a brief court brief, the Supreme Court said it had admitted the case and that the nine judges will hold a public hearing on February 8 to hear arguments from the parties.
The request for the high court to look into the case came from Trump's legal team, which had appealed an earlier decision by the Colorado Supreme Court.
On December 19 of last year, in an unprecedented ruling in the history of the United States, the Supreme Court of Colorado had determined that Trump could not participate in that state's Republican primary because of his role in the attack on the Capitol.
Subsequently, on Dec. 28, Maine became the second state to disqualify Trump. In this case, the decision was made by the authority in charge of organizing the elections in that constituency, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat.
Donald Trump at a campaign rally in late 2023. Photo: AFP
Trump's legal team also appealed that decision by Maine's secretary of state, in that case to the state Supreme Court.
In both cases, authorities deemed Trump to have participated in an attempted "insurrection" over the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol, which disqualifies him from holding public office under Section Three of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
That amendment was passed in 1868, after the Civil War in the United States, with the aim of preventing Southern Confederate rebels who had sworn to the Constitution and then betrayed it from coming to power.
Those decisions, pending a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, only affect Colorado and Maine because in the U.S. federal system, each state — not the nation — is responsible for organizing elections.
Donald Trump supporters take over the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Photo: AFP
Another fifteen states, including Oregon, Virginia, New York and Nevada, are also deciding whether Trump can run in the elections.
The Importance of the Supreme Court's Decision and the Distribution of Seats
In the complex U.S. political and electoral system, where states are in charge of organizing elections, even if they are presidential elections, each one has its own laws and rules, so similar demands can have a different outcome.
That is where the Supreme Court becomes more important, since a ruling of the high court should be respected throughout the nation.
Six of the nine members of the High Court are considered conservatives, three of them nominated by Trump himself during his term, so it would be surprising if they do not agree with the former president.
The building that houses the U.S. Supreme Court, in Washington. Photo: EFE
However, the fact that some of them are followers of "originalism," a legal current that advocates interpreting the Constitution as written by the founders, sows doubts about the Supreme Court's future decision.
Although the public hearing to study the case will be on February 8, it is not yet known when the U.S. Supreme Court will issue its ruling and it is also not known how far it will go.
The primaries in both Colorado and Maine are scheduled for March 5.
With information from EFE