Washington — Former President Donald Trump on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to reverse a decision from Colorado's top court that found he is disqualified from holding the presidency under a Civil War-era provision of the Constitution, calling on the justices to "put a swift and decisive end" to efforts to keep him off the ballot.

In an opening brief to the Supreme Court, Trump's lawyers said the challenges to his candidacy threaten to disenfranchise millions of Americans and "promise to unleash chaos and bedlam if other state courts and state officials follow Colorado's lead and exclude the likely Republican presidential nominee from their ballots."

Trump's brief presents an early look at the arguments his lawyers plan to put forward when they appear before the justices to argue the case on Feb. 8. They are asking the nation's highest court to decide whether the Colorado Supreme Court was wrong to order Trump be kept off the state's 2024 presidential primary ballot.

Trump's Lawyers Argue for Reversal of Colorado Decision

In a new filing, lawyers representing former President Donald Trump are urging the Supreme Court to reverse the Colorado Supreme Court's decision that disqualified Trump from the presidential ballot. They argue that Trump is not subject to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment as he is not an "officer of the United States" under the Constitution. Furthermore, they contend that even if he were subject to Section 3, his actions do not qualify as "insurrection."

The lawyers are calling on the Supreme Court to issue a definitive ruling on Trump's eligibility under Section 3, warning that anything less will only prolong the disqualification efforts. They assert that there are legislators determined to use Section 3 as a means to bar Trump from the general-election ballot or from taking office if the Court leaves any room for interpretation.

The Landmark Colorado Decision

In a divided 4-3 decision, the Colorado Supreme Court invoked the Constitution's insurrection clause for the first time to exclude a presidential candidate from the ballot. The court ruled that Trump, based on his conduct related to the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, engaged in insurrection and is therefore disqualified from holding the presidency. As a result, the court determined that Trump's name cannot be listed on the primary ballot and write-in votes for him cannot be counted. However, the court temporarily paused its decision to allow for the Supreme Court's review.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prohibits anyone who has sworn an oath to support the Constitution and then engaged in insurrection against it from holding public office. Enacted to keep former Confederate officials from federal office, unless they received amnesty from Congress, it has seldom been used in modern times and never against a former president.

The Colorado dispute presents a number of novel and untested legal questions that the Supreme Court may consider, including whether Section 3 applies to the president and presidency, whether the provision can only be enforced by a state once Congress passes legislation, and whether Trump engaged in insurrection against the Constitution.

The former president also argued that Section 3 prohibits individuals only from holding office, and does not prevent a candidate from running for office or even being elected. 

Backing Trump in his dispute are the GOP political groups such as the Republican National Committee, 27 red states and more than 175 Republican members of Congress, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Mike Johnson.

"The Colorado Supreme Court's opinion so broadly interpreted 'engage in' that it sailed right past President Trump's repeated statements to his supporters — both before the breach of the Capitol and after it was breached — telling them to act peacefully, and that he later told them via video to 'go home now,'" the GOP lawmakers wrote in a friend-of-the-court-brief. "It is hard to imagine an actual insurrectionist quickly asking for peace and encouraging disbandment."

A group of voters, including four Republicans and two unaffiliated individuals, is emphasizing the importance of knowing a candidate's eligibility for office before casting ballots. They have filed a lawsuit in Colorado state court challenging former President Trump's eligibility for a second term. In a filing before the Supreme Court, their lawyers urged the justices to intervene and decide questions regarding the legal interpretation of Section 3. They argue that a system in which voters must wait until after an election to learn whether the winning candidate is qualified is a recipe for events like the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, to become a regular part of American politics.