A group of Colorado voters laid out its argument to the Supreme Court on Friday for why former President Donald J. Trump should be barred from the state’s primary ballot, contending that his actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol amounted to an insurrection.
In a court filing embedded with photographs of rioters attacking the Capitol and tweets from Mr. Trump, the voters forcefully asserted that Mr. Trump had spurred a brazen attack on democracy, betraying his oath of office.
“As president, Trump swore to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution,” the voters’ brief said. It added, “Instead of peacefully ceding power, Trump intentionally organized and incited a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol in a desperate effort to prevent the counting of electoral votes cast against him.”
Mr. Trump’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to intervene after Colorado’s top court declared him ineligible because it found that he had engaged in insurrection in his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election leading up to the Capitol riot.
The justices are expected to hear the case, Trump v. Anderson, No. 23-719, on Feb. 8, less than a month before Super Tuesday, when many states, including Colorado, hold their primaries.
The central issue in the case is the meaning of a clause in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution that was added in the wake of the Civil War. That language prohibits from holding office those “who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States,” have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”