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The
voters, backed by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility
and Ethics in Washington, are challenging Trump’s eligibility to
return to the presidency under an amendment to the U.S.
Constitution passed after the Civil War that bars public
officials from holding federal office if they have engaged in
“insurrection.”
The Colorado lawsuit, which will be heard by the state Supreme
Court beginning at 1 p.m. MT (2000 GMT), has been viewed as a
test case for a wider campaign to contest Trump’s 2024 candidacy
under the constitutional provision, Section 3 of the 14th
Amendment.
A lower court ruling last month found that then-president Trump
engaged in insurrection by inciting a mob of his supporters to
storm the Capitol in an unsuccessful bid to stop Congress from
certifying Democrat Joe Biden's victory in the November 2020
election and obstructing the transfer of power.
But Judge Sarah Wallace allowed Trump to remain on the ballot in
the Colorado Republican primary, finding that as president,
Trump was not “an officer of the United States” who could be
disqualified under the amendment.
Lawyers for the voters argue that the judge’s ruling clashes
with the U.S. Constitution and “common sense.”
“It would defy logic to prohibit insurrectionists from holding
every federal or state office except for the highest and most
powerful in the land,” lawyers for the group wrote in a court
filing.
Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination, has
asked the state Supreme Court to uphold the ruling allowing
Trump on the ballot. His lawyers have disputed the finding that
he engaged in insurrection and argued that courts do not have
the authority to bar candidates from the ballot under the
constitutional provision.
Watchdog groups and anti-Trump advocates have brought lawsuits
in several states challenging Trump’s eligibility, though courts
have so far rejected all attempts to keep Trump off the ballot.
Trump’s campaign has called the legal challenges an
“un-American” attempt to prevent voters from being able to
choose their preferred candidate.
The Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling can be appealed to the U.S.
Supreme Court.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Scott Malone and
Grant McCool)
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