Here is CBS News:
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to review a politically explosive decision from Colorado’s top court that found former President Donald Trump ineligible for the presidency and would leave him off the state’s primary ballot, stepping into a high-stakes legal showdown that could have major ramifications for the 2024 presidential election.
The court set a swift schedule for filings from the parties in the appeal brought by Trump and said in a brief order that arguments will be held Feb. 8. A decision could come quickly after arguments, since Super Tuesday, when Colorado and more than a dozen states will hold their primaries or caucuses, is scheduled for March 5.
At the center of the dispute is the Constitution’s so-called insurrection clause, a Civil War-era provision that bars a person who has sworn an oath to defend the Constitution and then engages in insurrection from holding public office.
The Colorado Supreme Court concluded in a divided, 4-3 decision on Dec. 19 that Trump is disqualified from serving as president because of his conduct related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, and barred him from being listed on the state’s primary ballot. But the state’s high court paused its decision to allow the former president and the Colorado GOP time to appeal.
The court fight over Trump’s eligibility for the White House sends the Supreme Court into new territory, as it has never before ruled directly on the 155-year-old provision at the center of the case, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. It also puts the nation’s highest court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, in a position to potentially play a pivotal role in the 2024 election — the outcome of the case could decide whether Trump is eligible for ballot, not only in Colorado, but in the 49 other states.
Read the entire piece here.
Here is the third section of the 14th Amendment:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution 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.
Three of the issues the Court will have to address:
- Should a 19th-century amendment created in the context of the Confederacy’s armed insurrection against the United States be applied to the case of Donald Trump and his role on January 6, 2021? If not, what determines an “insurrection” or “rebellion” against the United States?
- Was January 6, 2021 an insurrection? Did Trump “engage” in it? Did he give “aid or comfort” to the insurrectionists? Were the insurrectionists “enemies” of the United States?’
- Does Section 3 of the 14th Amendment apply to the President of the United States?