Tennessee Joins Brief Asking US Supreme Court to Hear Trump Ballot Eligibility Case
Friday, January 05, 2024 | 04:13pm
NASHVILLE, TN - Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has joined an amicus brief, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal from a Colorado Supreme Court decision that prevented former President Donald Trump from appearing on the ballot for the state's Presidential Primary Elections. The coalition of 27 states, including the Arizona Legislature, argues that the Fourteenth Amendment grants Congress the authority to determine a person's eligibility for office, and state courts should not encroach upon this exclusive power.
"The president is chosen by the American people, not a small cadre of insulated elites,” said Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti in a statement. “It is incredibly dangerous for courts to insert themselves into the democratic process absent a clear legal mandate. The application of the Fourteenth Amendment in the Reconstruction Era is not consistent with the current effort to disqualify Donald Trump.”
The lawsuit was initially filed by six Colorado voters who claimed that Trump's alleged involvement in the January 6 incident at the U.S. Capitol disqualified him from office under a Civil War-era insurrection clause in the Fourteenth Amendment. However, a district judge ruled that the insurrection clause does not apply to the presidency, allowing Trump to be included on the ballot. Subsequently, the Colorado Supreme Court issued a ruling barring Trump from the GOP primary ballot under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Joining Tennessee in the West Virginia- and Indiana-led brief include: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming, and the Arizona Legislature.
You can read the brief in its entirety here.
https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/attorneygeneral/documents/pr/2024/pr24-02-brief.pdf
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PR24-02: Tennessee Joins Brief Asking US Supreme Court to Hear Trump Ballot Eligibility Case
https://www.tn.gov/attorneygeneral/news/2024/1/5/pr24-02.html