Congressional Republicans ask Supreme Court to keep Trump on ballot after Colorado decision
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WASHINGTON − The top Republicans in Congress have told the Supreme Court that Colorado was wrong to disqualify Donald Trump for ginning up the crowd that assaulted the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
In a court filing signed by House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and two-thirds of congressional Republicans, the lawmakers said Colorado’s decision ignored the role of Congress and used too broad a view of what it means to “engage in insurrection.”
“Anyone viewed as morally complicit could be swept within this vague definition,” they wrote.
After the then-GOP-controlled Senate acquitted Trump in 2021 on an impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection, McConnell said Trump was nonetheless “practically and morally responsible for proving the events of the day.”
“The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president, and having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth,” McConnell said in a scathing floor speech.
Related: Why Trump's critics are citing Justice Gorsuch in fight over ballots, insurrection
Colorado's Supreme Court ruled last month that Trump was barred from another term – and therefore banned from that state’s primary ballot – by a Reconstruction era provision in the 14th Amendment intended to keep federal officials who sided with the Confederacy from regaining power in the reconstructed federal government.
Trump, the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, appealed that decision. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments Feb. 8.
The Republican lawmakers are among the many outside interests urging the court to side with either Trump or Colorado. The filing was led by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas., and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La.
Republican lawmakers say states can’t use the 14th Amendment unless Congress passes legislation authorizing enforcement of the section relating to insurrection.
The lawmakers also make another argument Trump included in his appeal: That the insurrection provision doesn’t apply to former presidents.
And they rejected the charge that Trump engaged in insurrection.
The Colorado Supreme Court, lawmakers said, “sailed right past President Trump’s repeated statements to his supporters – both before the breach of the Capitol and after it was breached – telling them to act peacefully.”
The Colorado Supreme Court’s decision does reference those statements but says Trump didn’t condemn the violence nor asked the mob to disperse while rejecting pleas from House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to intervene.
McConnell, in 2021, said Trump only “halfheartedly began calling for peace” instead of immediately telling the mob to depart.
But McConnell has also said he will support Trump in this year’s election if he wins the GOP nomination.
In Thursday’s court filing, McConnell and the other lawmakers said engaging in insurrection requires more than encouraging or inflammatory message of moral support or organizing a political rally that ultimately results in political violence.
Taking a more expansive view, they argued, will lead to “widespread abuse” of the 14th Amendment.
Most legal experts believe the high court will have to resolve the case, but will seek a way to do so narrowly. Dozens of similar lawsuits are pending in states across the country.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court asked to keep Trump on ballot by Republicans
