ATLANTA — Georgia joined more than two dozen states in an effort to keep former President Donald Trump on the 2024 ballot in Colorado ahead of a key U.S. Supreme Court case.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr joined 26 other GOP attorneys general in filing a Saturday brief with the nation's highest court, arguing it should overturn a decision by the Colorado Supreme Court to bar Trump from the ballot under the 14th Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case Friday.
Carr and the other prosecutors warned that allowing the decision to stand would create "chaos."
"With the earliest primaries approaching in just a few months, this Court should not let the uncertainty persist," the brief reads. "Any damage may already have been done by the time another case raising similar issues makes its way back to this Court. And the longer litigation over a national candidate’s eligibility persists, the more uncertainty and confusion will spread. Voters need an answer in time to judiciously weigh the merits of competing candidates before casting their ballots, not after voting has begun."
In a statement, Carr tola 11Alive that the 2024 election "should be determined by the voters, not the courts."
“Removing any candidate without due process sets a scary and dangerous precedent not only for this election but will also open the door to judicial skullduggery far into the future affecting both parties," Carr said.
The Colorado Supreme Court on Dec. 19 overturned a lower court’s decision and concluded that Trump was disqualified from appearing on the state’s primary ballot.
“We conclude that because President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the [Colorado] Secretary [of State Gena Griswold] to list President Trump as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot,” the ruling said.
The Colorado Republican Party appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 27.
The U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled on the rarely-used Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was added after the Civil War to prevent former Confederates from returning to government. It says that anyone who swore an oath to “support” the U.S. Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” against it cannot hold government office.
The Colorado high court ruled that section applies to Trump in the wake of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol aimed at stopping the certification of President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election. It was the first time in history that the provision was used to block a presidential contender's campaign.
Trump has been scathing about the efforts in multiple states trying to remove him from the ballot - Colorado's and similar ones in other states - calling them “election interference.” After the news about the Supreme Court taking up the case, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung called the suits "part of a well-funded effort by left-wing political activists hell-bent on stopping the lawful re-election of President Trump this November, even if it means disenfranchising voters."
In addition to Colorado, Maine has also barred Trump from the ballot. Democrat Shenna Bellows, Maine's Secretary of State, became the first election official to prohibit someone from running for president under the 14th Amendment.
The question looms significantly as more than a dozen states, including Colorado, are scheduled to hold primaries March 5, Super Tuesday.
The Supreme Court appeared to have that in mind, taking up the case and already scheduling oral arguments for Feb 8.