The Daily Fuckup

Former President Donald Trump on Jan. 3, 2024, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that he is disqualified from holding the office of president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment and that his name should be removed from the Colorado primary ballot. The state court had stayed its judgment while review continued.

The filing put Trump before the justices on the same constitutional question at the center of the Colorado case: whether the post-Civil War disqualification clause can be used to block a former president from the ballot because of conduct tied to Jan. 6, 2021. In his petition, Trump asked the Court to reject both the Section 3 theory and the state court’s authority to enforce it against him.

The immediate legal posture mattered. As of Jan. 3, the Colorado ruling was stayed and not yet final while review was ongoing. Trump was not asking for a new political talking point. He was asking the Supreme Court to undo a ruling that, if allowed to stand, could keep him off Colorado’s ballot.