The Colorado GOP has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate Donald Trump on the state’s ballot.
“The drastic effects of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision on the 2024 primary election necessitate this Court’s immediate review, during this current term. The prompt hearing of this case is necessary to prevent the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision from having an irreparable effect on the electoral process,” attorneys for the Colorado GOP wrote.
“By excluding President Trump from the ballot, the Colorado Supreme Court engaged in an unprecedented disregard for the First Amendment right of political parties to select the candidates of their choice and a usurpation of the rights of the people to choose their elected officials.”
“The Colorado Supreme Court’s decision is wrong for a host of reasons. As most relevant here, it improperly applied precedent establishing the First Amendment right of political parties, failed to apply precedent repeatedly holding that the Fourteenth Amendment is not a self-executing sword…and incorrectly concluded that the President is an ‘officer of the United States.’ This alone would present grounds for review in any circumstance,” the attorneys added.
The Colorado Republican Party has vowed to move to a caucus system if the state’s Supreme Court keeps Donald Trump off the GOP primary ballot.
The group made the statement in response to Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy saying he would withdraw from the state primary if Trump was not included on the ballot.
Ramaswamy’s pledge to withdraw from the state primary prompted the Colorado GOP to respond, “You won’t have to because we will withdraw from the Primary as a Party and convert to a pure caucus system if this is allowed to stand.”
A dissenting Colorado Supreme Court Justice in the decision to ban Trump from the state’s GOP primary ballot wrote that he has been “involved in the justice system for thirty-three years now, and what took place here doesn’t resemble anything I’ve seen in a courtroom.”
“There was no fair trial either,” Justice Carlos Samour remarked.
“The decision to bar former President Donald J. Trump — by all accounts the current leading Republican presidential candidate (and reportedly the current leading overall presidential candidate) — from Colorado’s presidential primary ballot flies in the face of the due process doctrine,” Samour wrote. “Even if we are convinced that a candidate committed horrible acts in the past — dare I say, engaged in insurrection — there must be procedural due process before we can declare that individual disqualified from holding public office.”
“If President Trump committed a heinous act worthy of disqualification, he should be disqualified for the sake of protecting our hallowed democratic system, regardless of whether citizens may wish to vote for him in Colorado,” Samour explained. “But such a determination must follow the appropriate procedural avenues. Absent adequate due process, it is improper for our state to bar him from holding public office.”
