Attorneys general from 25 states, including Alaska, have signed onto a brief that backs former President Donald Trump in Colorado, where a legal battle rages over whether he will be allowed to appear on the primary ballot.
In a 22-page “friend of the court” brief, the attorneys general called on the high court to strike down a Colorado State Supreme Court decision barring Trump, using as its rationale the Constitution’s 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist” ban.
The Colorado Supreme Court removed Trump from the ballot over his culpability in the Jan. 6, 2021 disruption of the certification of the presidential election. The Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to hear the case.
The top attorneys for the states — all Republican run — argue that the Colorado Supreme Court overstepped its authority.
The “Colorado court’s decision will create widespread chaos,” they wrote. “Most obviously, it casts confusion into an election cycle that is just weeks away. Beyond that, it upsets the respective roles of the Congress, the States, and the courts.”
The legal brief says the U.S. Supreme Court’s immediate intervention is required.
“Now that the Colorado court has intruded into an arena where courts previously have feared to tread, swift intervention is essential,” the attorneys wrote. ““Our country needs an authoritative, consistent, and uniform answer to whether former President Trump is constitutionally eligible for President, Granting the Petition would at least be a step in that direction.”
The 14th Amendment was adopted after the Civil War and has been so seldom used that there is no legal precedence to advise the justices on what “engaging in insurrection” actually means.
In addition to Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor, those from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming signed the brief.
