Senate Campaign Arm Files Brief To Keep Trump On Colorado Ballot

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and Montana Sen. Steve Daines (R) have filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court to keep Donald Trump on Colorado’s primary ballot.

Daines’s amici curiae — or friend-of-the-court — brief is part of a broader Republican backlash against the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that Trump violated the Constitution’s insurrection clause.

Daines, the chair of the Senate Republican campaign arm, argues the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling “breaches” the Constitution’s “bedrock guarantee of American democracy.”

According to The Hill, Daines and the NRSC wrote that they have “a unique and profound interest” in the case because they support and seek to uphold the rights of all American citizens to vote for the candidate of their choice, arguing the Colorado court decision deprives Americans of that right.

They argue that even if Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars Trump from holding office, it does not bar him from appearing on the ballot, and that it is solely the prerogative of Congress to disqualify him from the Oval Office if he wins the election.  

“So even if the Colorado Supreme Court were correct that President Trump cannot take office on Inauguration Day, that court has no basis to hold that he cannot run for office on Election Day and also seek removal for any alleged disqualification from Congress if necessary,” they wrote.

Daines announced last month he would file a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to reverse the Colorado court’s decision, which he called “a disgrace to our country and our democracy.”