A long, muddled sentence in the Constitution is at the center of today's Supreme Court fight to determine whether Donald Trump should be allowed to appear on Colorado’s Republican primary ballot.
Oral arguments in front of the 6-3 conservative majority begin just after 10 a.m. ET today and could last for several hours.
If Trump loses, other states could also exclude his name from their ballots and place hurdles in the way of his attempt to regain the presidency. Officials in conservative-controlled states have warned they could seek to remove President Joe Biden from the ballot in response.
The sentence at the center of Colorado’s argument is in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, written in the aftermath of the Civil War. It says:
“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
That’s a mouthful. And it’s not exactly clear how this should be interpreted, senior legal correspondent Laura Jarrett points out. For example, is the president included in this? And what counts as an insurrection? Read Jarrett’s explainer here.
The argument in Colorado’s legal challenge is that Trump “intentionally organized and incited a violent mob” on Jan. 6, 2021, resulting in an attack on the U.S. Capitol. In arguing for the suit’s dismissal, Trump’s lawyers have argued the president is not an officer of the U.S., that Trump did not engage in an insurrection and that only Congress, not the courts, can enforce Section 3.
Supreme Court reporter Lawrence Hurley details everything else you should know heading into today’s hearing. Visit our live blog at NBCNews.com later this morning to follow the case in real-time.
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