Former President Trump is currently the leading Republican candidate for the US presidential election in November 2024. However, some voters in the state of Colorado believe that Mr. Trump's role in the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021 was no different from an "insurrection", according to NHK.
The lawsuits argue that Mr. Trump is ineligible to run for office under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which bars officials who have taken an oath to the Constitution from holding office in the future if they participated in an insurrection.
Last year, the Colorado Supreme Court agreed with those voters and ruled to disqualify Mr. Trump from the primary. Mr. Trump appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Former US President Donald Trump gestures as he attends a rally ahead of the New Hampshire primary election on January 22.
During the hearing on February 8, all nine justices of the US Supreme Court listened to the opinions of Mr. Trump's lawyers. In it, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson asked: "Is the intention to cause chaos and overthrow the government not an insurrection?"
Mr Trump's lawyer Jonathan Mitchell responded that it was not an insurrection but a "riot". Mr Trump's team argued that the constitutional provision cited in the Colorado case does not apply to the presidency and can only be exercised by the US Congress.
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After the hearing, Mr. Trump said at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida: "I have confidence in the Supreme Court. I listened today and I think our argument was very strong."
The Supreme Court's ruling will have implications for other states that are also challenging Trump's eligibility for re-election and awaiting a ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court. But Chief Justice John Roberts said the consequences of a ruling against Trump could be even broader, according to CNN.
If Trump is disqualified from the Colorado election, Roberts predicted that other states would eventually try to disqualify other candidates from future elections. That, he said, would seem inconsistent with the purpose and history of the 14th Amendment, according to CNN.
US media reported that US Supreme Court justices could issue a ruling before March 5, the day of the Super Tuesday primary elections in Colorado and other states.
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