Donald Trump wants the US Supreme Court to change a decision made in Colorado that said he couldn’t run for president there.
Colorado’s highest court said last month that Mr. Trump could not run in the primary election because he was involved in the riot at the US Capitol.
He asked for the decision to be reviewed one day after challenging a similar decision in Maine.
Many lawsuits have been filed in different states trying to prevent Mr. Trump from being on the November 2024 ballot.
Courts in Minnesota and Michigan have rejected efforts to disqualify the former US president and leading Republican candidate, while other cases are still pending. “Cases, including those in Oregon, are still waiting to be resolved. ”
Mr Trump is asking the highest court in the country to decide if he can run for federal office in Colorado. The nine Supreme Court judges will have to make a very important decision.
The Republican elections in Colorado and Maine are happening on March 5th, which is called Super Tuesday. It’s when a lot of states have their votes to pick their party candidates. Postal votes must be sent out early, so the Supreme Court is being urged to make a decision soon.
The Supreme Court decision about whether Mr. Trump can run for president because of a Civil War law would apply to everyone in the country.
The 14th Amendment of the US Constitution stops people who have rebelled against the government from holding federal jobs. But the ex-president’s lawyers say this rule doesn’t apply to the president.
The Trump campaign said that the Colorado Supreme Court and President Biden are trying to stop American voters from voting for President Trump.
“This is an act of interference in the election that goes against what America stands for and is against the rules of our government,” said Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the campaign.
“We want the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to be rejected and we want a fair election in November. ”
The Colorado Supreme Court made a close decision, with four judges supporting it and three judges opposing it. All seven judges were chosen by leaders who are Democrats.
It was expected that Mr. Trump would ask the Supreme Court for help. They have to wait to decide if he will be taken off the ballot in Colorado and Maine because there are legal problems that need to be fixed first.
The highest court has more conservative judges, and three of them were picked by Donald Trump when he was president.
However, during an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said that the ex-president was worried that the Supreme Court, which mostly leans conservative, might make a decision against him because they don’t want to support Trump.
“He has told me and everyone else publicly about his concern, not privately,” she said. “And I can say that he has a good reason to be concerned. ”
The Colorado case is the first time in the history of the United States that the 14th Amendment has been used to remove a presidential candidate from the election.
Mr Trump is being investigated for trying to change the election results, but he has not been accused of starting a riot in either court case.
Legal experts explained that the Colorado case caused a lot of disagreement in politics, and it made the Supreme Court’s job very challenging.
“The Supreme Court is being asked to decide what democracy can and cannot do,” said Samuel Issacharoff, a professor of law at New York University.
Prof Issacharoff said that the former president has a lot of people who really like him, but also a lot of people who really don’t like him.
On Tuesday, David Janovksy, who works at a group that watches over the government, said it’s good that the Supreme Court is looking at the issue. He thinks it’s the best way to solve the issue for the whole country.
“He said that because Colorado and Maine have made this decision, while other states have not, this could be a good reason for the Supreme Court to make a decision about it. ”
“Time is very important. “