Donald Trump formally called on the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to throw out the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling blocking him from appearing on the state’s ballot because he allegedly violated the 14th Amendment, which bans those who hold office from having “engaged in insurrection.” 

Trump’s lawyers argue that the president is not an officer of the United States and what happened on January 6, 2021 was not an insurrection.

Associated Press reporter Nicholas Riccardi says, “The appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is especially significant because the nation’s highest court has never before ruled in a case involving Section three of the 14th Amendment. That’s a Civil War era provision that says that if you swore an oath to support the Constitution, then engaged in insurrection, you no longer are qualified for office.”

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After the Colorado decision, Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social, “What a shame for our country!!!” and “A sad day for America!!!”

Colorado is just one of many states trying to block Trump from running. Maine is the most recent state to also boot him from the ballot. 
 
Some Democrats are worried the move to keep Trump off state ballots will backfire, politically. 

High-profile Democrats including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, as well as influential former Obama and Clinton advisor, David Axelrod are calling it a bad move.

Axelrod told CNN, “I have very, very strong reservations about all of this. I do think it would rip the country apart if he were actually prevented from running because tens of millions of people want to vote for him.” 

Preliminary polls indicate Trump already has a huge lead of 30 points over his closest Republican rival in Iowa. 

And it’s important to note that despite the rulings in Maine and Colorado, Trump remains on the ballot for now.

“Both the Colorado Supreme Court and the Maine Secretary of State stayed their decisions, recognizing that it’s the U.S. Supreme Court that’s going to have the final word on this,” Riccardi says. 

The high court’s decision will apply to all 50 states.

One of Trump’s attorneys, Alina Habba, says she hopes the Supreme Court will make a decision based on the law and the Constitution. “There’s no politics that should be involved in this, it’s just simply American,” she said.

Meanwhile, the former president is also fighting a slew of other legal challenges. They include the following:

* A federal election interference case, which is currently on hold while the courts battle out whether Trump is protected by presidential immunity.

* A classified documents case, alleging he mishandled highly sensitive national security information and then tried to cover it up. That has a May 20th trial date, but could be pushed back.

* The Georgia election interference case where Trump is accused of conspiring to change the outcome of the state’s election results in his favor. No trial date there yet.

* And finally, the Stormy Daniels case which alleges Trump falsified business records related to hush money payments to the adult film star. That trial date is also in flux.

Trump maintains his innocence in all four criminal cases.