Colorado SOS files brief with U.S. Supreme Court in Trump case

(The Center Square) – Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case involving former President Donald Trump’s removal from the 2024 Colorado Republican presidential primary ballot.

The brief comes after Griswold recently petitioned the court to argue her side of the case along with attorneys for Trump and attorneys for the Republicans who filed the case in Colorado. Griswold requested 75 minutes for arguments among the three parties.

“The Secretary requests 15 minutes of time for herself to present argument, a modest amount to convey Colorado’s interests and provide information about Colorado’s election laws, as compared with 30 minutes for both Petitioner Trump and the Respondent Electors,” the petition stated.

However, attorneys for Norma Anderson, the leader of a group of Republicans who sought to remove Trump, responded that Griswold’s request for time wasn’t appropriate in a document filed with the court. Anderson’s attorneys also said a request by Professor Seth Barrett Tillman to appear before the U.S. Supreme Court judges wasn’t appropriate.

Tillman made the request to argue the president is not “an officer of the United States” as required in the constitutional arguments regarding holding office in accordance with the 14th Amendment. Trump’s attorneys attempted to allow Tillman to make the argument during a 10-minute allowance before the Colorado Supreme Court but was denied by the judges.

The court set a Jan. 18 deadline for briefs on the merits of the case and any “amicus curiae briefs” or “friend of the court briefs” in support or not in support of either side. Briefs responding to the merits of the case were due on Wednesday. Any briefs responding to previously filed briefs are due by 5 p.m. on Feb. 5.

Dozens of briefs were filed and submitted by a wide range of partisan organizations, former office holders and law professors. Trump’s attorneys filed their brief on Jan. 18 and argued Colorado violated its own regulations when the state’s highest court ruled him ineligible for the March Republican presidential primary.

Trump’s name will appear on the March ballot in Colorado as the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case triggered a stipulation by the state supreme court to allow his name on the ballot.

Griswold’s 59-page brief stated Colorado has the right to exclude “ineligible insurrectionists” from its presidential primary ballot.

“The Colorado Supreme Court was right when they ruled Donald Trump is ineligible to appear on the Colorado ballot after engaging in insurrection,” Griswold said in a statement announcing the filing of the brief. “This is an unprecedented case, but the law is clear. I urge the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court to act with the urgency that this case demands, and treat Donald Trump as they would any other American – our laws should be applied equally.”

By Joe Mueller | The Center Square