SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – Attorney General Sean D. Reyes joined an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in Trump v. Anderson. The brief, which was led by the States of Indiana and West Virginia, asks the nation’s high court to hear arguments to address the Colorado Supreme Court decision about former President Donald Trump’s ballot eligibility.
On December 19, the Colorado Supreme Court ordered that Trump be removed from the ballot, ruling that the former president “is disqualified from holding the office of president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.” The Colorado Supreme Court stayed its decision pending action by the U.S. Supreme Court. After the coalition of attorneys general filed the amicus brief, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and scheduled oral argument for February 8.
In their brief, the States argued the U.S. Supreme Court should hear the case “to head off the chaos that the Colorado decision will produce, to return power to Congress – where it belongs, and to erase a standardless political judgement about what constitutes ‘insurrection.’”
As the attorneys general write, “The Colorado Supreme Court has cast itself into a ‘political thicket,’ and it is now up to this Court to pull it out. ‘Confidence in the integrity of our electoral processes is essential to the functioning of our participatory democracy.’ If the Colorado decision stands, that critical confidence will be harmed. Many Americans will become convinced that a few partisan actors have contrived to take a political decision out of ordinary voters’ hands.”
Joining Utah, Indiana, and West Virginia on the brief were the States of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wyoming, and Republican leaders of the Arizona State Legislature.
