Supreme Court Justices to Review Colorado’s Disqualification of Trump from Ballot

Supreme Court justices Thursday peppered a lawyer for Donald Trump with questions as the former president fights to avoid being kicked off state presidential ballots for his actions involving the 2021 Capitol attack in a case with major implications for the November election.

The nine justices were hearing Trump’s appeal of a Dec. 19 ruling by Colorado’s top court to disqualify him from the state’s Republican primary ballot under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment after finding that he participated in an insurrection.

The justices focused most of their time early in the argument on two main arguments made by Trump’s lawyers, that Section 3 cannot be enforced by states absent congressional legislation and that presidents are not subject to Section 3.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars from holding public office any “officer of the United States” who took an oath “to support the Constitution of the United States” and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

The justices grilled Trump’s lawyer Jonathan Mitchell at the outset of the arguments.

Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts asked Mitchell whether a state’s top elections official could disqualify a candidate who comes forward and says he took the oath mentioned in the provision and engaged in an insurrection.

“No, the secretary of state could not do that,” Mitchell said.

Questioned by liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Mitchell also argued Trump is not subject to the disqualification language because a president is not an “officer of the United States.”

Trump’s lawyers also have argued the provision cannot be enforced by courts absent congressional legislation and that he did not engage in an insurrection.