Former President Donald Trump’s attorney said Thursday that her team believes that the U.S. Supreme Court and especially Justice Brett Kavanaugh will “step up” in rejecting various decisions that barred the former president from appearing on the ballot in Maine and Colorado.
Speaking to Fox News’ Sean Hannity, lawyer Alina Habba said that appeals to the high court of decisions that ruled President Trump cannot appear on the ballots under a reading of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment will likely succeed. She said that their cases will likely prevail because the justices are “pro-law ... because they’re pro-fairness.”
Her comments came about a day after the former president asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that blocked him from appearing on the Republican primary ballot. He has also appealed a decision handed down by Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, that also prohibited his name from appearing on the ballot.
Ms. Habba argued during her appearance on Fox News that the 14th Amendment’s Section 3, written in the aftermath of the Civil War, was added to prevent individuals who were “pro-slavery“ and ”who were anti-American“ from taking office. The former president ”is not this” and hasn’t been charged with an insurrection or rebellion, she added.
Appeals
A 4–3 ruling in December by the Colorado Supreme Court marked the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was used to bar a presidential contender from the ballot. The court found that President Trump had a role in the Capitol breach on Jan. 6, and that it disqualified him.
On Wednesday, the former president appealed the decision, arguing that the Colorado judges have disenfranchised voters in the state.
“The Colorado Supreme Court decision would unconstitutionally disenfranchise millions of voters in Colorado and likely be used as a template to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters nationwide,” President Trump’s lawyers wrote in their appeal to the nation’s highest court, noting that Maine has already followed Colorado’s lead.
Wednesday’s development came a day after the president’s legal team filed an appeal against the aforementioned ruling from Ms. Bellows that Trump was ineligible to appear on that state’s ballot over his role in the Capitol breach. Both the Colorado Supreme Court and the Maine secretary of state’s rulings are on hold until the appeals play out.
The new appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court also follows one from Colorado’s Republican Party. Legal observers expect the high court will take the case because it concerns unsettled constitutional issues that go to the heart of the way the country is governed, while the 14th Amendment provision has been used so sparingly in American history that the U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled on it.
All the parties to the case have urged the court to move quickly. The former president’s lawyers on Wednesday asked the court to overturn the ruling without even hearing oral arguments. The lawyers representing the Colorado plaintiffs have urged oral arguments but also seek a vastly accelerated schedule, calling for a resolution by next month. Colorado’s primary is March 5.
Some conservatives have warned that, if President Trump is removed, leftist groups will routinely use Section 3 against opponents in unexpected ways.
The issue of whether President Trump can be on the ballot is not the only matter related to the former president or Jan. 6 that has reached the high court. The justices last month declined a request from special counsel Jack Smith to swiftly take up and rule on the former president’s claims that he is immune from prosecution, although the issue could be back before the court soon depending on the ruling of a Washington-based appeals court.
That case pertains to felony charges the former president faces in which he is accused of attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
