Supreme Court considers whether states can remove Trump from ballot

Update, 1:05 p.m.: Former President Donald Trump spoke to reporters outside his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida following the arguments at the Supreme Court. He called the proceedings “a very beautiful process” and said he hopes democracy will prevail.

“I thought the presentation today was a very good one. I think it was well received,” Trump said. “You have millions of people that are out there wanting to vote, and they want to vote for me or the Republican Party.” He called the case and other cases against him politically motivated and equated the legal battles to election interference. 

Trump is heading to Nevada for the state’s caucuses, where he is all but guaranteed a victory after his top competitor, Nikki Haley, opted to participate in the state’s primary election instead.

Update, 12:35 p.m.: In a rebuttal, Trump’s attorney, Jonathan Mitchell, argued that the problem with Colorado’s prevention of former President Donald Trump from appearing on its ballot is that it did so before Congress had decided Trump’s eligibility and that in doing so, Colorado had effectively departed from the wording of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Previously, Colorado Solicitor General Shannon Stevenson said that states had the ability under the 14th Amendment to prevent candidates they believed to be ineligible for office from appearing on their states’ ballots.

Stevenson argued that states had individual processes for deciding matters like Trump’s eligibility. She said that the country needed to embrace the possibility of different interpretations on such matters, and it should accept the possibility of disparate policies among the states as a part of the U.S. governmental structure. Congress is free to act and should be allowed to intervene if it felt a federal nationwide decision was required to address state disparities, she said.

Update, 12:10 p.m.: Jason Murray, attorney for Norma Anderson and the Colorado voters who are plaintiffs in the case, spoke to the Court. He argued that—by keeping specific candidates off their ballots—states can protect their voters from wasting their votes for a candidate not eligible to hold office.

Murray argued that there was no question that states could prevent underage candidates, foreign-born candidates, or candidates running for a third presidential term off their ballots. He claimed this case presented a similar situation.

Justice Neil Gorsuch questioned Murray on whether Colorado had a right to prevent Trump from running for office when the Constitution only prevented insurrectionists from holding office. Gorsuch said the Constitution did not prevent underage candidates from running for office.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson asked why the framers didn’t explicitly include “president” in the offices enumerated in Sec. 3 of the 14th Amendment. Murray argued that, in the discussions surrounding the writing of the amendment, the writers of the text had said that “president” was included in “any office.”

Update, 11:20 a.m.: Trump lawyer Jonathan Mitchell presented his arguments to the justices first. He reiterated his argument that Section 3 does not apply to the former president. He said the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling could take away the votes of “tens of millions of people.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson asked Mitchell whether he believes the events of Jan. 6, 2021, qualify as an insurrection. “For an insurrection, there needs to be an organized, concerted effort to overthrow the government of the United States through violence,” he said. “This was a riot. It was not an insurrection.” Mitchell also said that Trump did not incite his followers to violence.

Many of the questions the justices asked Mitchell centered on his argument that the office of the president is not explicitly named in Section 3 of the Constitution. This is the first case heard by the Supreme Court on this section. Justice Samuel Alito said that if Colorado’s ruling stands, it could pave the way for other states to come to different conclusions on Trump’s eligibility, creating an even more complicated legal issue.

Original report: On Thursday, the justices heard arguments from lawyers representing former President Donald Trump, a group of Colorado voters who sued to remove him from the ballot, and Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. The high court last month agreed to hear Trump’s challenge to the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that he incited the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and thus is not eligible to appear on the state’s primary ballot. Trump denies inciting the riot and other charges.

What is the background of this case? Last year, the Washington-based advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics brought the case on behalf of a group of Republican and Independent voters. The plaintiffs argued that Trump violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which bars people engaged in an insurrection from holding government office. They allege that he encouraged his supporters to engage in unlawful acts at the Capitol. A lower Colorado court earlier ruled that the office of the president is not limited by the statute because it is not explicitly listed. Trump’s lawyers have argued that the clause does not apply to the former president and that he did not engage in an insurrection.

What could this mean for other state ballots? Maine’s Superior Court last month paused a similar case until after the Supreme Court’s ruling. Similar efforts to remove Trump in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Hampshire were dismissed on procedural grounds, and another legal attempt failed in Arizona.

Dig deeper: Read Carolina Lumetta’s report on what the Constitution says about state-level efforts to remove Trump from the ballot.

Read our previous coverage of this issue:

Court hearings begin in lawsuit to ban Trump from Colorado ballots - Oct. 30, 2023

Colorado Supreme Court hears arguments on Trump 14th Amendment lawsuit - Dec. 6, 2023

Colorado Supreme Court rules to block Trump’s name from appearing on primary ballots - Dec. 19, 2023

FBI investigates threats against Colorado Supreme Court justices - Dec. 27, 2023

Trump appeals rulings barring him from Maine, Colorado primary ballots - Jan. 3, 2024

Trump’s lawyers call for Supreme Court to end ballot removal efforts - Jan. 19, 2024