FILE – Attorney Eric Olson, far right, argues before the Colorado Supreme Court on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023, in Denver. The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday, Dec. 19, declared former President Donald Trump ineligible for the White House under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause and removed him from the state’s presidential primary ballot, setting up a likely showdown in the nation’s highest court to decide whether the front-runner for the GOP nomination can remain in the race. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, Pool)
Published December 30, 2023
The decision by Maine’s secretary of state to bar former President Donald Trump from the ballot will inevitably increase pressure on the U.S. Supreme Court to settle the issue of Trump’s eligibility once and for all
DENVER (AP) — First, Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled that former President Donald Trump wasn’t eligible to run for his old job in that state. Then, Maine’s Democratic secretary of state ruled the same for her state. Who’s next?
Both decisions are historic. The Colorado court was the first court to apply to a presidential candidate a rarely used constitutional ban against those who “engaged in insurrection.” Maine’s secretary of state was the first top election official to unilaterally strike a presidential candidate from the ballot under that provision.
But both decisions are on hold while the legal process plays out.
That means that Trump remains on the ballot in Colorado and Maine and that his political fate is now in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Maine ruling will likely never take effect on its own. Its central impact is increasing pressure on the nation’s highest court to say clearly: Can Trump still run for president after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol?
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SOURCE: www.ny1.com
RELATED: Trump Ballot Ban: Colorado GOP Appeals to US Supreme Court
Published December 28, 2023
On Wednesday, the Colorado Republican Party filed an appeal to the United States Supreme Court, seeking to have the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision barring former President Donald Trump from that state’s primary ballot on 14th Amendment grounds overturned.
The Colorado Republican Party on Wednesday appealed that state’s supreme court decision that found former President Donald Trump is ineligible for the presidency, the potential first step to a showdown at the nation’s highest court over the meaning of a 155-year-old constitutional provision that bans from office those who “engaged in insurrection.”
The first impact of the appeal is to extend the stay of the 4-3 ruling from Colorado’s highest court, which put its decision on pause until Jan. 4, the day before the state’s primary ballots are due at the printer, or until an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is finished. Trump himself has said he still plans to appeal the ruling to the nation’s highest court as well.
The Colorado Republican Party is working with the American Center for Law and Justice on the appeal. Colorado attorneys Jay Sekulow and Jordan Sekulow appear to be the primary authors of the appeal, which states in part:
In our filing today, we make three main arguments:
“The President is not an officer of the United States covered within the disqualification provision of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
“Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment is not a self-executing authority for state courts and litigants to use as a sword against presidential candidates.”
“The Colorado Supreme Court’s decision violates the Colorado Republican Party’s First Amendment associational right to choose its own political candidates.”
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SOURCE: www.redstate.com
RELATED: Americans sour on primary election process and major political parties, poll says
Many Republicans aren’t certain votes will be counted correctly in their contest.
FILE – Voters pass a sign outside a polling site in Warwick, R.I., on Nov. 7, 2022. With the Republican primaries around the corner, a new poll finds that party members aren’t sure votes in the presidential nominating contest will be counted accurately. Only about one-third of Republicans say they’re confident that tallies in the primary will be accurate. That’s according to a new AP-NORC poll. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
Published December 30, 2023
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the GOP presidential primaries just about to start, many Republicans aren’t certain that votes will be counted correctly in their contest, as pessimism spreads about the future of both the Democratic and Republican parties, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
About one-third of Republicans say they have a “great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence that votes in the Republican primary elections and caucuses will be counted correctly. About three in 10 Republicans report a “moderate” amount of confidence, and 32% say they have “only a little” or “none at all.” In contrast, 72% of Democrats have high confidence their party will count votes accurately in its primary contests. Democrats are also slightly more likely than Republicans to have a high level of confidence in the Republican Party’s vote count being accurate.
Republicans continue to be broadly doubtful about votes being counted accurately — in the early contests or beyond them. About one-quarter of Republicans say they have at least “quite a bit” of confidence that the votes in the 2024 presidential election will be counted accurately, significantly lower than Democrats. Slightly fewer than half of U.S. adults overall (46%) believe the same, which is in line with an AP-NORC poll conducted in June.
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SOURCE: www.bostonherald.com
