Jan. 5 (UPI) — The U.S. Supreme Court plans to hear a challenge to former President Donald Trump‘s ban from the Colorado primary ballot.
The Supreme Court on Friday said it agreed to hear an appeal against Trump’s disqualification from the Republican primary ballot in Colorado due to his indictment in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The court said it will hear arguments in the case on Feb. 8.
A decision could come quickly, as Colorado’s Republican primary is scheduled for March 5.
Trump’s political fate now lies in the hands of the conservative-majority court, which includes three Trump appointees.
“We welcome a fair hearing at the Supreme Court to argue against the bad-faith, election-interfering, voter-suppressing, Democrat-backed and Biden-led, 14th Amendment abusing decision to remove President Trump’s name from the 2024 ballot in the state of Colorado,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.
The Colorado Supreme Court disqualified Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot on Dec. 19, by a vote of 4 to 3. The court ruled the former president was ineligible to run for the White House because of the 14th Amendment’s insurrectionist ban.
The clause prohibits anyone who has taken an oath of office from holding any office if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same,” but “Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
The section was ratified after the Civil War and originally designed to keep Confederates from returning to federal office.
The battle over Trump’s eligibility for the White House is a novel one for the Supreme Court, as it has never before ruled directly on the 155-year-old provision at the center of the case.
Colorado was the first state to block Trump from a ballot due to his efforts to disrupt Joe Biden‘s inauguration. Just before the new year, Maine followed suit and disqualified Trump from running on the same grounds. Trump is appealing that ruling in Maine state court.
California’s secretary of state took the opposite route when she decided Thursday to leave Trump’s name on the state’s primary ballot, despite pushback from multiple state Democrats.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom opposed the idea of banning Trump, saying he should instead be handed a defeat by voters.
The former president also has had luck in Michigan, Arizona and Minnesota, which struck down citizen-led petitions to disqualify him from appearing on those states’ ballots.
Trump’s legal woes continue as New York’s attorney general on Friday called for the judge in Trump’s civil fraud case to issue him a $370 million fine and ban him from ever doing real estate business in New York again.
The attorney general alleged Trump used “myriad deceptive schemes” to falsely inflate his net worth by billions. Judge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the trial, said he expects to issue his verdict by the end of January.