The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s behalf next week as it considers an appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision finding former President Donald Trump ineligible for the state’s 2024 presidential primary ballot.
In an order Friday, the high court granted Griswold’s request for a 10-minute sliver of time for an attorney representing her office to speak during oral arguments. The justices also will hear from lawyers for Trump and the Colorado voters who challenged his eligibility during Thursday’s hearing in Washington, D.C.
The state’s highest court found in a 4-3 ruling in December that Trump was disqualified from becoming president again because his actions around the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot violated the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But a stay is in place because of the appeal, allowing the Republican frontrunner to appear on Colorado’s March 5 presidential primary ballot.
In Griswold’s request, filed late last week, she asked the court for time “to allow her to address the unique state-law and state-level election-administration issues presented in this matter.” She requested 15 minutes but was granted 10 in Friday’s order. Jack Todd, a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office, said Solicitor General Shannon Stevenson would represent Griswold during arguments.
The Supreme Court’s order says argument time will be limited to 80 minutes. Of the remainder, 40 minutes will go to Trump’s team and 30 minutes will go to the lawyer for the Colorado voters who filed the ballot challenge.
The challenge by the unaffiliated and Republican voters was backed by the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Griswold on Wednesday filed a separate brief in the case that urged the justices to uphold the Colorado court’s ruling. She was a named defendant in the lawsuit challenging Trump’s eligibility because of her state office, and at earlier stages of the case she did not weigh in on whether Trump should be taken off the ballot.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that the Colorado decision, if not reversed, “would unconstitutionally disenfranchise millions of voters in Colorado and likely be used as a template to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters nationwide.”
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Correction (updated at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 2, 2024): The original version of this story has been clarified to reflect that Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold will be represented by the state’s solicitor general during arguments next week in the U.S. Supreme Court.
