Former President Donald Trump has not only seen his campaign disrupted by a string of criminal indictments, but he has also been the subject of state-level efforts to keep his name off of the upcoming presidential primary ballot.
Most notably, the Colorado Supreme Court handed down a divided ruling that claimed Trump’s actions in the aftermath of the 2020 election fueled an “insurrection,” thus disqualifying him under the terms of a clause found in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
Other states have followed suit, including in Maine, where Secretary of State Shenna Bellows unilaterally determined that Trump’s name should be excluded from the ballot.
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in connection with the Colorado ruling in a case that could reshape the 2024 presidential race. With just days left until the Iowa caucuses, which will give Americans their first opportunity to weigh in on the primary, Trump was campaigning in the Hawkeye State on Friday and offered his take on the upcoming Supreme Court hearing.
“I just hope we get fair treatment,” he told a crowd in Sioux City. “Because if we don’t, our country is in big, big trouble. Does everybody understand what I’m saying?”
His remarks, which came on the heels of the Supreme Court’s confirmation that it would hear the arguments, also included a reference to critics who say justices — particularly the three nominated by Trump — would not be impartial.
Trump continued: “They’re saying, ‘Oh, Trump owns the Supreme Court — he owns it, he owns it. If they make a decision for him, it will be terrible. It will ruin their reputations. He owns the Supreme Court. He put on three judges. He owns the Supreme Court. If they rule in his favor, it will be horrible for them, and we’ll protest at their houses.”
He went on to warn about the possible implications of such steady criticism prior to a ruling by the high court, suggesting that it could compel “people to do the wrong thing.”
The former president is not alone in calling on Supreme Court justices to stymie efforts in Colorado and elsewhere to prevent his name from appearing on ballots.
See AG Marshall's statement on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to review the partisan ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court. Full statement & brief: https://t.co/RiiXebN0pX pic.twitter.com/RB2OERjJRy
— Attorney General Steve Marshall (@AGSteveMarshall) January 5, 2024
A brief signed by the Republican attorneys general from 27 states argued that the anti-Trump strategy not only “casts confusion into an election cycle that is just weeks away” but also “upsets the respective roles of the Congress, the States, and the courts.”
