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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
The U.S. Supreme Court decided late Friday afternoon to take an emergency appeal from attorneys for former President Donald Trump after the Colorado Supreme Court banned him from that state’s 2024 ballot last month.
The nation’s highest court said that all briefs filed in the case are due by Jan. 31, and that the justices would hear oral arguments on Feb. 8, Fox News reported.
“The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. The case is set for oral argument on Thursday, February 8, 2024,” the decision said. “Petitioner’s brief on the merits, and any amicus curiae briefs in support or in support of neither party, are to be filed on or before Thursday, January 18, 2024.”
At the same time, the high court issued a stay of Colorado’s order, instructing that state’s secretary of state to place Trump’s name back on the ballot pending the final decision in the case.
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The Colorado court barred Trump under the 14th Amendment’s provision banning “officers” of the United States who engaged in “insurrection” from running for elected office. Supreme Court justices will likely consider the meaning of the phrase “engaged in insurrection” to make their decisions, Fox News reported.
Meanwhile, a Wyoming district court judge dismissed a lawsuit aiming to remove Trump and Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis from election ballots, which led to a celebration from Wyoming Republican Secretary of State Chuck Gray, Fox reported separately on Friday.
Retired lawyer Tim Newcomb filed a lawsuit in November, Newcomb v. Chuck Gray, with the Albany County District Court to remove Trump and Lummis from future ballots. He argued they were “traitors” to the Constitution in regard to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol Building.
“I am extremely pleased with Judge Westby’s decision to dismiss Mr. Newcomb’s outrageously wrong and repugnant lawsuit to remove Donald Trump and Cynthia Lummis from the ballot in Wyoming,” Gray said in a press release provided to Fox News Digital.
“I have been working to make sure that Donald Trump will be able to be on the ballot, and I am happy our motion to dismiss this lawsuit was granted. I will continue to fight against this nationwide effort in order to protect the integrity of our elections and ensure that the people of Wyoming can choose who to elect for themselves,” Gray added.
“Mr. Newcomb’s screed reflects the ravings of a radical left-wing madman,” Gray told the Cowboy State Daily last month. “Its (sic) another example of the tactics of lunatics of the radical Left with their outrageously wrong attempts at election interference.”
Post-Civil War ratification of the 14th Amendment prohibits “engaged in insurrection” from holding public office for officials who pledge allegiance to the Constitution. Aside from its ambiguous language and lack of specific reference to the presidency, this provision has seen only two applications since 1919.
Democratic governors of Colorado appointed all seven justices to the state’s highest court. To remain on the bench, six of the seven judges went on to win statewide retention elections. The seventh has not yet been put to the vote since she was appointed in 2021. The ruling was hardly unanimous at 4-3, however.
Trump has condemned the 14th Amendment litigation as an abuse of the judicial process and denies any wrongdoing about January 6. He has entered a not-guilty plea to federal and state charges related to his efforts to reverse the 2020 election.
Before the unprecedented ruling, a lengthy list of parties, including over a dozen attorneys general from states controlled by Republicans, had filed briefs in a legal challenge to the constitutional eligibility of Trump to appear on Colorado’s 2024 ballot.
