Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump rallies with loyalists in Ankeny, Iowa, December 2, 2023. (File photo by Reuters)
Donald Trump has announced his decision to appeal to the court rulings that remove him from the ballot of the 2024 US Presidential Election in two states.
The former controversial president of the United States and a Republican candidate for the race ahead has vowed to challenge the court rulings against him.
Trump says the rulings are "undemocratic" and part of a conspiracy by his political rivals to keep him away from office.
Trump has been barred from the ballot by Colorados Supreme Court and Maines Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.
Authorities in both states equally ruled that Trump could not run for president there.
Colorados Supreme Court had also decided that Trump was not eligible to appear on the states Republican primary ballot due to his actions.
On Thursday, Bellows ruled that Trump be barred from the ballot over his role in the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill "insurrection."
In addition, advocacy groups and some anti-Trump voters have brought legal challenges to his 2024 campaign in several states, arguing that then President Trump engaged in "insurrection" when he ordered loyalists to march on Capitol Hill on that January day and stop Congress from certifying the November 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
Trumps campaign has said it will appeal to the two rulings. It has labeled Bellows a "virulent leftist and a hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat."
"We are witnessing, in real-time, the attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter," Trumps spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.
"Make no mistake, these partisan election interference efforts are a hostile assault on American democracy."
"We know both the Constitution and the American people are on our side in this fight."
"President Trumps dominating campaign has a commanding lead in the polls that has dramatically expanded as Crooked Joe Bidens presidency continues to fail."
Legal experts say the court rulings in question are historic. They believe Trump is the first candidate in US history to be barred for "insurrection."
The Colorado court was the first to apply the rarely used constitutional ban against those who "engaged in insurrection."
And Bellows was the first top election official to unilaterally strike a presidential candidate from the ballot under that provision.
Experts, nevertheless, argue that the US Supreme Court should step in to clarify what states can do. The Maine ruling will likely never take effect on its own.
Trump is already being prosecuted for an attempt to overturn his 2020 loss. But Section 3 of the Constitution doesnt require a criminal conviction to take effect.
So far, dozens of secretaries of state have been asked to remove Trump from the ballot.
Challenges to Trumps eligibility have been filed in at least 12 states. One of the more closely watched cases is in Oregon, where the state Supreme Court is poised to decide on his case in the coming days.
The final decision on Trumps participation in the 2024 election is subject to action by the Supreme Court of the United States and until it releases its verdict any state could adopt its own standard on whether Trump, or anyone else, can be on the ballot.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/29288
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