Former US President Donald Trump asked the US Supreme Court on Wednesday to overturn a decision by Colorado’s highest court, which caused a sensation by declaring him ineligible for the presidency because of his actions during the storming of the Capitol.
A second state, Maine, also considered that the great favorite of the Republicans for the presidential election next November was “unfit for the office of president” because of the attack on the Capitol, carried out in 2021 by supporters of Mr. Trump who contested the election of Democrat Joe Biden.
Donald Trump had already appealed the Maine decision. On Wednesday, his lawyers asked the United States Supreme Court — three of whose nine justices were appointed by the ex-president — to review the Colorado case and invalidate the decision of the Supreme Court of that state from West.
According to them, the decision, if upheld, “will mark the first time in the history of the United States that the judicial system has prevented voters from casting their ballots for the main candidate of a major party in the presidential election.”
“The question of eligibility to serve as President of the United States is rightly reserved for Congress — not the state courts — to consider and decide,” they added.
The decisions of Maine and Colorado were based on the 14e amendment to the American Constitution, which excludes from public liability anyone, after taking an oath to defend the Constitution, who engages in acts of “rebellion” or “insurrection”.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers also argued in their motion that Section 3 of the amendment did not apply to him as president, that January 6 was not an “insurrection” and that the tycoon did not had “in no way participated in an insurrection.”
The Maine and Colorado decisions only relate to Republican primaries held in those two states.
As long as legal proceedings continue, ballots will still have to include the name of the ex-president.
On January 6, 2021, hundreds of supporters of Donald Trump violently stormed the Capitol, the sanctuary of American democracy, to try to prevent the certification of the victory of his opponent, Joe Biden.
Donald Trump and his most fervent supporters still dispute, without proof, the results of the 2020 election.