Trump v. Anderson
Supreme Court of the United States
Full case nameDonald J. Trump v. Norma Anderson, Michelle Priola, Claudine Cmarada, Krista Kafer, Kathi Wright, and Christopher Castilian
Docket no.23-719
Case history
PriorCertiorari to the Colorado Supreme Court, Anderson v. Griswold
January 6 United
States Capitol attack
A crowd of attackers amid a cloud of tear gas (top) outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021(top), and an attacker inside the Capitol throws a metal trash can at a police officer (bottom) on January 6, 2021
Timeline • Planning
Background
2020 presidential election
and other causes
Related groups and persons
Participants
Notable people
Organizations
Law enforcement response
Aftermath
Biden inauguration
Investigations and charges
Corporate actions
Reactions
Impeachment and 2024 presidential election

Trump v. Anderson (No. 23-719, filed January 3, 2024) is a pending U.S. Supreme Court case. In December 2023, the Colorado Supreme Court rejected the presidential eligibility of Donald Trump, the former president of the United States and a candidate in the 2024 presidential election, on the basis of his actions during the January 6 Capitol attack. The case was known as Anderson v. Griswold in the Colorado state courts.

The Colorado Supreme Court held that Trump's actions before and during the attack constituted engaging in insurrection; the Fourteenth Amendment disqualifies presidential candidates who have engaged in insurrection against the United States. The Colorado Supreme Court's ruling in Anderson v. Griswold is the first time that a presidential candidate has been disqualified from office in a state on the basis of the Fourteenth Amendment. It is stayed until a ruling is made by the Supreme Court of the United States. On January 5, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari for Trump's appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court ruling in Anderson v. Griswold; oral arguments have been scheduled for February 8.

Background

January 6 Capitol attack

On December 19, 2020, six weeks following his election loss, Trump urged his followers on Twitter to protest in Washington, D.C., on January 6, the day Congress was set to certify the results of the election, writing, "Be there, will be wild!" Over the course of the following weeks, Trump would repeat the January 6 date. Militant organizations and groups affiliated with the conspiracy theory QAnon formulated logistical plans to gather at the United States Capitol. Trump continued to repeat false claims about the election leading up to January 6, including Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, and Arizona.[1] On the morning of January 6, Trump gave a speech in the Ellipse, a park near the White House, and encouraged his followers to walk down to Pennsylvania Avenue to incite within Republicans the "kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country". Provoked by Trump, the mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.[2]

Fourteenth Amendment disqualification theory

Section 3. No person shall ... hold any office, civil or military, under the United States... who, having previously taken an oath... as an officer of the United States ...shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

In August 2023, conservative legal scholars and Federalist Society members William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen, in an article to be published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, posited that Trump is ineligible to be president.[3][4] Baude and Paulsen argue that Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment—a section that prevents individuals from holding office who, having "previously taken an oath [...] to support the Constitution of the United States", have "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the United States—applies to Trump through his fraudulent electors plot and "specific encouragement" of January 6, including refusing to call in the National Guard, evidenced by the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack and his second federal indictment. According to Baude and Paulsen, states are given legal obligation and precedent to remove Trump from primary ballots under Article Two of the Constitution, which establishes presidential eligibility requirements. Baude and Paulsen argue, however, that the decision in Griffin's Case (1869) adopted a pragmatic, consequentialist interpretation of Section Three, contrary to their position.[5] In March 2022, a district judge ruled that then-representative Madison Cawthorn could not be considered an insurrectionist.[6] In an article to be published in the Texas Review of Law and Politics, law professors Josh Blackman and Seth Barrett Tillman responded to Baude and Paulsen, arguing against the basis for a Fourteenth Amendment disqualification of Trump.[7][8]

Lower court history

District Court

On September 6, 2023, six voters filed a lawsuit in Colorado state district court invoking the Fourteenth Amendment disqualification theory. The petitioners included four Republican voters (including titular plaintiff Norma Anderson and former U.S. Representative Claudine Schneider[9]) and two unaffiliated voters. The lawsuit asks for the court to prevent Trump from appearing on the state's Republican presidential primary. Jena Griswold is named as the respondent in her official capacity as Colorado Secretary of State,[10] while Trump and the Colorado Republican State Central Committee are named as intervenors.[11] The trial began on October 30.[12] Judge Sarah B. Wallace refused a request from Trump's lawyers to dismiss the case.[13]

On November 17, Wallace ruled that Griswold must keep Trump on the ballot but stated that Trump engaged in insurrection by standard of preponderance of the evidence,[14] the first time a judge has explicitly stated Trump incited the January 6 Capitol attack,[15] with regards to his prior rhetoric and inaction during the attack.[16] Wallace stated that Trump was not an officer of the United States with sparse "direct evidence" suggesting the presidency is included as part of the functionary.[17]

Colorado Supreme Court

The plaintiffs appealed on November 20.[18] The Colorado Supreme Court agreed to take up Anderson v. Griswold on November 21.[19] On December 19, the court ruled in a 4–3 per curiam decision[20] that Trump is disqualified from the primary ballot, reversing the district court's ruling.[21] In its decision, the Colorado Supreme Court noted that not all other states have standards to pre-qualify candidates for primary elections, citing the primary election framework in Michigan; election law in Michigan does not include the term "qualified candidate", Michigan courts cannot explicitly assess the qualifications of a candidate, and the Michigan secretary of state's responsibilities are limited in primary elections. Colorado's election code, by contrast, provides the state with greater dominion over the removal of a candidate.[22]

Chief Justice Brian Boatright and justices Carlos Samour and Maria Berkenkotter offered dissenting opinions. Chief Justice Boatright dissented based on the contention that the question of whether a candidate had participated in an insurrection was too broad to be adjudicated under the relevant jurisdictional statute. Justice Samour doubted that the abbreviated trial proceeding on eligibility could have provided adequate due process.[23] The court's ruling was initially stayed until January 4, 2024, the day before Colorado's deadline to print primary ballots,[24] though it was indefinitely extended.[25]

U.S. Supreme Court

The Colorado Republican Party appealed the ruling in Anderson v. Griswold to the Supreme Court of the United States on December 27,[26] which indefinitely extended the Colorado Supreme Court's stay on the ruling.[25] Trump appealed the ruling on January 3, 2024.[27] The Supreme Court announced on January 5 that it will hear arguments in Trump v. Anderson on February 8.[28] The Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee jointly filed an amicus curiae brief on January 5 supporting Trump.[29] The Attorneys General of Indiana, West Virginia, 25 other states and the Arizona legislature also jointly filed an amicus curiae brief supporting Trump.[30]

Reactions

Republican response

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung stated that the Colorado Supreme Court's ruling eliminated the "rights of Colorado voters to vote for the candidate of their choice".[31] The Trump campaign used the ruling to fundraise, accusing Democrats of attempting to "amass total control over America by rigging the election".[32] Trump did not mention the ruling during a speech hours later in Waterloo, Iowa.[33] He has denied being an insurrectionist.[34]

Presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy,[35] Nikki Haley,[36] and Ron DeSantis criticized the decision.[37] Chris Christie, an ardent critic of Trump, stated that Trump should be "prevented from being president of the United States by the voters".[38] Candidate Asa Hutchinson stated that the ruling would "haunt his candidacy"; Hutchinson had drawn attention to the Fourteenth Amendment disqualification theory during the first Republican debate.[39]

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson described the decision as a "thinly veiled partisan attack".[40] Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) said he intends to introduce legislation withholding election administration federal funds to states implementing the Fourteenth Amendment disqualification theory.[41] Colorado U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert wrote that the decision was "designed to suppress the vote and voices of hundreds of thousands of Coloradans".[42]

Vivek Ramaswamy vowed to withdraw from the ballot in protest.[43] The Colorado Republican Party tweeted that it would "withdraw" from the primary and instead use a pure caucus system if the ruling stands.[44]

Democratic response

President Joe Biden said, in response to the Colorado Supreme Court's ruling, that there was "no question" of Trump having supported an insurrection, Trump "certainly" had.[45]

Colorado Representative Jason Crow lauded the decision.[46]

Delaware Senator Chris Coons hailed the Colorado Supreme Court's ruling barring former President Donald Trump from the state's ballot, calling it "a plain reading of the text of the 14th amendment".[47]

Presidential candidate Marianne Williamson criticized the decision, stating that Trump "has not been proven guilty of insurrection in a court of law, and a ruling based on nothing but that opinion is stepping onto a very slippery slope."[48]

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman criticized the efforts to keep Trump off the ballot as "incredibly unhelpful", stating that any effort to keep Trump off the ballot "just make[s] him more popular and strong. That’s just going to energize his base. It’s just not helpful." Fetterman closed the statement by saying that Democrats should instead focus on defeating Trump in the polls.[49][50]

California Governor Gavin Newsom also criticized the ruling in Colorado, stating that “There is no doubt that Donald Trump is a threat to our liberties and even to our democracy, but in California, we defeat candidates at the polls. Everything else is a political distraction.”[51]

International response

Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, wrote that the United States has "lost its ability to lecture any other country about 'democracy'".[52]

References

Citations

  1. ↑ United States Department of Justice 2023, p. 8-9.
  2. ↑ Barry, Dan; Frenkel, Sheera (January 6, 2021). "'Be There. Will Be Wild!': Trump All but Circled the Date". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 28, 2021. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  3. ↑ Liptak, Adam (August 10, 2023). "Conservative Case Emerges to Disqualify Trump for Role on Jan. 6". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 10, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  4. ↑ William Baude & Michael Stokes Paulsen. The Sweep and Force of Section Three. 172 U. Pa. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2024). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4532751
  5. ↑ Beauchamp, Zack (August 11, 2023). "The constitutional case that Donald Trump is already banned from being president". Vox. Archived from the original on August 11, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  6. ↑ Weisman, Jonathan (March 4, 2022). "Judge Blocks Effort to Disqualify Cawthorn from Ballot as 'Insurrectionist'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 10, 2022. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  7. ↑ Astor, Maggie. "What is the 14th Amendment, and what does it say?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  8. ↑ Josh Blackman & Seth Barrett Tillman. Sweeping and Forcing the President into Section 3. 28 Tex. Rev. L. & Pol. 350 (forthcoming 2024). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4568771
  9. ↑ Miru (September 6, 2023). "Lawsuit filed to remove Trump from ballot in CO under 14th Amendment". CREW | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Archived from the original on January 4, 2024. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
  10. ↑ Astor, Maggie (September 6, 2023). "Colorado Lawsuit Seeks to Keep Trump Off Ballots Under 14th Amendment". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 14, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  11. ↑ Colorado Supreme Court 2023, p. 1.
  12. ↑ Astor, Maggie (October 30, 2023). "Colorado Trial Considers Whether the 14th Amendment Disqualifies Trump". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  13. ↑ Astor, Maggie (November 1, 2023). "Trump 14th Amendment Disqualification Trial Can Continue, Judge Rules". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  14. ↑ Colorado Supreme Court 2023, p. 60.
  15. ↑ Blake, Aaron (November 20, 2023). "A judge says Trump incited insurrection. Other judges have come close". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 21, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  16. ↑ Astor, Maggie (November 17, 2023). "Colorado Judge Keeps Trump on Ballot but Finds He 'Engaged in Insurrection'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 9, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  17. ↑ Montellaro, Zach; Orden, Erica; Cheney, Kyle (November 17, 2023). "Colorado judge rules Trump 'engaged in an insurrection' — but can still run for president". Politico. Archived from the original on December 16, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  18. ↑ Riccardi, Nicholas (November 21, 2023). "Colorado Supreme Court will hear appeal of ruling that Trump can stay on ballot despite insurrection". Associated Press. Archived from the original on November 24, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  19. ↑ Cameron, Chris (November 21, 2023). "Colorado Supreme Court Agrees to Take Up Trump's 14th Amendment Case". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  20. ↑ Colorado Supreme Court 2023, p. 6.
  21. ↑ Astor, Maggie (December 19, 2023). "Trump Is Disqualified From the 2024 Ballot, Colorado Supreme Court Rules". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 19, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  22. ↑ Colorado Supreme Court 2023.
  23. ↑ Riccardi, Nicholas (December 19, 2023). "Donald Trump banned from Colorado ballot in historic ruling by state's Supreme Court". Associated Press. Archived from the original on December 19, 2023. Retrieved December 28, 2023.
  24. ↑ "Donald Trump banned from Colorado ballot in historic ruling by state's Supreme Court". Associated Press. December 19, 2023. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  25. 1 2 Cohen, Marshall; Cole, Devan (December 27, 2023). "Colorado GOP asks US Supreme Court to overturn ruling disqualifying Trump from 2024 ballot". CNN. Archived from the original on January 2, 2024. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  26. ↑ Montellaro, Zach (December 28, 2023). "US Supreme Court officially asked to take up Trump's 14th Amendment issue". Politico. Archived from the original on December 29, 2023. Retrieved December 29, 2023.
  27. ↑ Marley, Patrick; Marrimow, Ann E. (January 3, 2024). "Trump asks Supreme Court to keep his name on Colorado ballot". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 4, 2024. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  28. ↑ Liptak, Adam (January 5, 2024). "Justices to Decide Whether Trump Is Eligible for Colorado Ballot". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 5, 2024. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
  29. ↑ McGraw, Meridith (January 5, 2024). "RNC supports Trump in 14th Amendment case at the Supreme Court". Politico. Archived from the original on January 7, 2024. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
  30. ↑ James A. Barta (January 5, 2024). "Brief of Amici Curiae States of Indiana, West Virginia, 25 Other States, and the Arizona Legislature in Support of Petitioner" (PDF).
  31. ↑ Gold, Michael (December 19, 2023). "In a statement, Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, accused the Colorado Supreme Court of effectively "eliminating the rights of Colorado voters to vote for the candidate of their choice."". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  32. ↑ Gold, Michael (December 19, 2023). "The Trump campaign is already fund-raising off the Colorado decision". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  33. ↑ Gold, Michael (December 19, 2023). "Trump did not explicitly mention the Colorado Supreme Court decision in his speech in Waterloo, Iowa, which just wrapped up". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  34. ↑ Shabad, Rebecca (December 22, 2023). "Trump says he's 'not an insurrectionist' after Colorado high court removes him from ballot". NBC News. Archived from the original on December 22, 2023. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
  35. ↑ Gold, Michael (December 19, 2023). "Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running against Trump, called the decision an "attack on democracy" in a statement on social media". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  36. ↑ Ulloa, Jazmine (December 19, 2023). "Nikki Haley, campaigning in Agency, Iowa, told reporters that she does not believe Donald J. Trump should be president but that she plans "to beat him fair and square."". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  37. ↑ Nehamas, Nicholas (December 19, 2023). "After dodging reporters at his event in Iowa, Ron DeSantis has now responded to the Trump ruling with a post on X." The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  38. ↑ Huynh, Anjali (December 19, 2023). "Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey who has run an explicitly anti-Trump campaign, said at a town hall in Bedford, N.H., that he did not believe Trump should be "prevented" from being president by a court". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  39. ↑ Gold, Michael (December 19, 2023). "Asa Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas and another Republican presidential candidate, said that the Colorado Supreme Court's ruling that Trump supported insurrection would "haunt his candidacy."". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  40. ↑ Corasaniti, Nick (December 19, 2023). "Speaker Mike Johnson issued a swift statement on Tuesday night, calling the ruling "a thinly veiled partisan attack" and noting that Trump is the "leader in every poll of the Republican primary."". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  41. ↑ Cameron, Chris (December 19, 2023). "Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, said he would introduce legislation that would withhold federal funds for election administration to states "misusing the Fourteenth Amendment for political purposes."". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  42. ↑ Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas (December 19, 2023). "Representative Lauren Boebert, the outspoken Republican congresswoman who represents a wide swath of western and southern Colorado, ripped into the court's decision, saying in a statement that the justices had made a political decision that was "designed to suppress the vote and voices of hundreds of thousands of Coloradans."". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  43. ↑ Ross, Kendall; Murray, Isabella; Ibssa, Lalee; Kim, Soo Rin (December 20, 2023). "Ramaswamy pledges to withdraw from Colorado GOP primary in solidarity with Trump". ABC News. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 21, 2023.
  44. ↑ Fortinsky, Sarah (December 20, 2023). "Colorado GOP threatens to shift to caucus system over Trump ruling". The Hill. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  45. ↑ Samuels, Brett (December 19, 2023). "Biden: 'No question' Trump supported insurrection in light of Colorado ruling". The Hill. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
  46. ↑ Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas (December 19, 2023). "Representative Jason Crow, a Democrat whose district includes eastern and southern suburbs of Denver, wrote online that the state's supreme court got the case right". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  47. ↑ Garrity, Kelly (December 20, 2023). "Coons: Colorado ruling on Trump is 'a plain reading of the text of the 14th amendment'". Politico. Archived from the original on December 21, 2023. Retrieved December 21, 2023.
  48. ↑ Williamson, Marianne [@marwilliamson] (December 21, 2023). "No matter what we think of Donald Trump politically, he must be treated fairly by our justice system. Equal treatment before the law not only means that everyone is held accountable, but also that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Trump has not been proven guilty of insurrection in a court of law, and a ruling based on nothing but that opinion is stepping onto a very slippery slope" (Tweet). Retrieved December 23, 2023 – via Twitter.
  49. ↑ Metzger, Bryan. "John Fetterman says it's 'incredibly unhelpful' to boot Trump from ballots via the 14th amendment: 'All it does is just make him more popular and strong'". Business Insider. Archived from the original on January 7, 2024. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  50. ↑ Prose, J.D. (January 5, 2024). "Fetterman says efforts to keep Trump off state ballots are 'incredibly unhelpful'". The Patriot-News. Archived from the original on January 8, 2024. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  51. ↑ Mason, Melanie (December 22, 2023). "Newsom pans efforts to block Trump from California ballot". politico. Archived from the original on January 7, 2024. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  52. ↑ Epstein, Reid (December 19, 2023). "The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, who has cracked down on civil liberties and shown authoritarian tendencies, denounced the Colorado ruling". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.

Works cited

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