Ramaswamy urges Supreme Court to overturn Colorado ruling removing Trump from ballot

<i>Brian Snyder/Reuters/File</i><br/>In this October 13

By CNN Newsource

Published January 11, 2024 11:01 AM

By Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is urging the US Supreme Court to overturn the Colorado Supreme Court ruling barring Donald Trump from the state’s ballot.

Ramaswamy, who has previously denounced the Colorado court ruling, told the justices in a friend-of-the-court brief filed Thursday that he disagreed with the state court’s finding that the Constitution’s so-called insurrectionist ban applies to the presidency.

But he also stressed that if the justices in Washington, DC, leave the Colorado ruling intact, the consequences “will extend far beyond the dispute over President Trump’s eligibility,” potentially incentivizing voters and decisionmakers in states to find ways to kick candidates off the ballot for their own personal and professional benefit.

“For secretaries of state and state supreme court justices, the path to national notoriety will be illuminated: To enhance your credibility among co-partisans, simply concoct a reason to declare a disfavored presidential candidate of the opposing party ineligible to run for office,” he told the justices.

“For voters, the message will be equally clear: Scour the records of disfavored candidates for speeches containing martial rhetoric, or even policies that had unintended consequences, and then file challenges under Section 3. The number of Section 3 complaints will proliferate, as will the number of divergent outcomes,” the filing said, referring to the Constitutional provision at issue in the case.

After the Colorado Supreme Court issued its ruling last month, Ramaswamy pledged to withdraw from the Colorado GOP primary unless Trump is allowed on the ballot.

The Colorado decision has been on pause pending the US Supreme Court’s resolution of the case, and the state’s top election official last week certified the 2024 presidential primary ballots with Trump’s name on the Republican ballot.

The US Supreme Court, which is currently considering whether to overturn the state court’s decision, is set to hear oral arguments in the case on February 8.