Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach and the state Republican Party have filed briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of former President Donald Trump’s legal quest to get on the Colorado ballot.
Kobach filed his own friend-of-the-court brief supporting Trump while the Kansas Republican Party joined in a brief with 32 other states and territorial Republican Parties seeking to reverse a Colorado Supreme Court decision keeping Trump off the ballot.
In his filing with the U.S. Supreme Court, Kobach said he submitted the brief because voters, not lawyers, should decide elections.
He also said that Kansas – as one of the original ratifying states of the 14th Amendment – seeks to ensure that a “faithful interpretation” of the constitution is applied in Trump’s effort to get on the ballot in Colorado.
The Republican Party says the Colorado Supreme Court engaged in “judicial lawmaking” which will “invite a slew of politically motivated actions designed to pander to public perception to the determent of well-established principles of law.”
Meanwhile, Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab has joined with secretaries of state from 10 others states to file a brief that doesn’t support either party.
They argue that the court should not give secretaries of state an inherent power to disqualify candidates for office.
They say that such a decision would not only run counter to the Constitution, but would “introduce serious practical problems that would heighten partisan politics and lead to anti-democratic results.”
“Whoever decides disqualification on the basis of insurrection, it should not be these
state actors,” the secretaries of state argue.
Trump is appealing a decision from the Colorado Supreme Court that he was disqualified from serving as president because he “engaged in insurrection” against the Constitution because of the riots at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The lawsuit brought to keep Trump off the ballot in Colorado was one of 60 lawsuits or administrative challenges that have been filed seeking to keep the former president from appearing on the presidential primary or general-election ballot, according to court filings.
The general idea of the lawsuit is that Trump is disqualified from holding office under section 3 of the 14th Amendment because of an allegation that he “engaged in insurrection” on Jan. 6.
Courts considering those claims — including state Supreme Courts in Michigan and Minnesota — have turned aside the litigation for varying reasons with the Colorado being an exception, according to documents filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trump argues that the Colorado Supreme Court erred in its decision when it ordered the secretary of state to exclude Trump from the presidential primary ballot. The ruling was delayed while Trump appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trump argues that the Colorado Supreme Court did not have authority to deny him access to the ballot, saying that it “usurped congressional authority and misinterpreted and misapplied” the 14th Amendment.
“Congress — not a state court — is the proper body to resolve questions concerning a presidential candidate’s eligibility,” Trump argues.
“By considering the question of President Trump’s eligibility and barring him from the ballot, the Colorado Supreme Court arrogated Congress’ authority.”
Kobach, along with Solicitor General Anthony Powell, said in their brief that Trump didn’t participate in an insurrection on Jan. 6.
“There is no question that the only basis for the application of Section 3 is Trump’s speech leading up to and on Jan. 6th — none of which called for violence or ‘insurrection or rebellion,'” they argue to the court.
“Trump did not take up arms, trespass onto any property, or otherwise actively participate in what transpired on Jan. 6,” they wrote in their brief.
“Plain and simple, the conduct in question is pure speech, and the type of speech that this court has indicated is subject to few restriction,” the brief stated.
“The case for Trump’s disqualification rides heavily not on overt actions Trump himself took, but rather on what others did later, supposedly in sympathy with his speech.”
The Kansas Republican Party brief was filed by Kansas lawyers Craig Uhrich and Christopher McGowne of Oakley, Kansas. McGowne is the lawyer for the state Republican Party.
The party argues that the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision was “rushed and premature.”
“Colorado’s primary is months away, yet the Colorado Supreme Court has chosen to use a state statutory scheme to create legal theories for disqualification of political candidates out
of whole cloth, in direct contradiction to the text of the United States Constitution.
“The Colorado Supreme Court has further chosen to ignore clear statutory text and historical context of the amendment at issue, all in its pursuit to impose the court’s political will on not just a single presidential candidate, but an entire group of disaffected and disenfranchised citizens…,” they argue in their brief.
The Republican Party argues that the case is less about Trump than it is a proper interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.
“This matter is not about President Trump, but about the proper interpretation of the Constitution and the unprecedented interpretation the Colorado Supreme Court invoked to achieve it desired political ends,” the party wrote in its brief.
“Failing to close this Pandora’s box will result in tit-for-tat litigation to determine federal elections.”
