The United States Supreme Court agreed on Friday to examine whether the former Republican president donald trump may be excluded from the primaries ahead of the November elections, after the state of Colorado would take an unprecedented measure and veto it.
The highest judicial instance of USA -where conservative judges are in the majority and three of the justices were appointed by Trump- will have a crucial role in the presidential elections.
Less than ten days before the primaries begin in Iowathe Supreme Court reported that a hearing on a Trump disqualification is scheduled for February 8.
Until the court rules, Trump’s name may appear on the ballots of the Republican Party.
“I hope to receive fair treatment“Trump said on Friday night during a rally in Iowa ahead of the primaries.
Last month, the Colorado Supreme Court banned Trump from appearing on the ballots republican primaries in this western state due to his alleged role in the January 6, 2021 riot.
That day his supporters broke into the Capitol with the aim of preventing the certification of Joe Biden as winner of the 2020 presidential elections.
donald trump and his most fervent followers still call into question, without evidence, the results of the 2020 elections.
“The first time in history”
The court decision in Colorado is based on the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitutionsection three of which prohibits any person from holding public office if he or she has participated in a “insurrection or rebellion” after having promised to defend Magna Carta.
The amendment, ratified in 1868 after the Civil warwas intended to prevent supporters of the slaveholding Confederacy from being elected to Congress or holding federal office.
Lawyers for Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, asked the United States Supreme Court to revoke the ruling of Colorado and also affects a judicial process in Maine.
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Trump’s defense estimates that if the ban is maintained it will be “the first time in US history that the judiciary prevented voters from casting their ballot for a major party’s leading presidential candidate”.
According to lawyers, only Congress has this prerogative.
Trump’s lawyers also argue that section three of the 14th amendment does not apply to Trump as a former president, that January 6 was not a “insurrection“and that the tycoon”has not participated in any way in an insurrection”.
