The US risks “chaos and bedlam” if Donald Trump is barred by individual states from running from president, his lawyers have told the Supreme Court.
The top judges have taken up an appeal by the Republican 2024 frontrunner against a verdict in Colorado, where a court ruled that Trump engaged in “insurrection” and so is barred by the Constitution from running again.
Maine has also ruled Trump ineligible from the White House ballot because of the constitutional provision, which was enacted in 1868 after the Civil War to stop secessionists from taking up roles in the federal government.
His legal team argued in a submission to the Supreme Court that Trump was not an insurrectionist. His supporters stormed Capitol Hill in January 2021 after he gave a speech urging them to “fight like hell” against his election defeat by Joe Biden.
"In fact, the opposite is true, as President Trump repeatedly called for peace, patriotism, and law and order," the lawyers wrote - although he stood by for hours while his supporters ran amok.
They also argued that the constitutional proviso only applies to lower office-holders, not the presidency.
Efforts to keep Trump off the ballot "threaten to disenfranchise tens of millions of Americans and ... promise to unleash chaos and bedlam if other state courts and state officials follow Colorado's lead and exclude the likely Republican presidential nominee from their ballots", they wrote.
Three of the nine current Supreme Court justices were appointed by Trump, although his attempts to declare the 2020 election result a fraud have been rejected repeatedly by the judges.
He also faces state and federal trials for trying to thwart President Biden’s win, across four criminal cases, but none of them involves a charge of insurrection.
This week he was in court in New York where jurors are determining financial penalties after he was found guilty of defaming newspaper columnist E. Jean Carroll in a rape case.
Trump did score a legal win in Washington state, where a court threw out a bid to disqualify him from the ballot. Judge Mary Sue Wilson said the secretary of state had "acted consistent with his duties" by accepting all the candidates, including Trump, submitted by the Republican and Democratic parties.
Trump's vice-like grip on the Republican nominating field was strengthened by his landslide win in the Iowa caucuses, which kicked off the 2024 race in earnest this week.
He is also tipped to win next week's New Hampshire primaries, although former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley is polling in a strong second place.
