Trump lawyer says Justice Kavanaugh will 'step up' to restore Trump to the Colorado ballot
Jan 6, 2024, 02:03 IST
- One of Donald Trump's attorneys singled out Brett Kavanaugh as the high court weighed a major case.
- Trump has asked the court to hear his appeal of a Colorado decision booting him from its primary ballot.
Advertisement
Alina Habba, one of former President Donald Trump's attorneys, called attention to Justice Brett Kavanaugh as the Supreme Court considered Trump's appeal of Colorado's decision to kick him off the Republican presidential-primary ballot.
"I think it should be a slam dunk in the Supreme Court. I have faith in them," Habba told the Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday evening. "You know people like, uh, Kavanaugh, who the president fought for, who the president went through hell to get into place, he'll step up."Habba added that the justices would step up "not because they are pro-Trump but because they are pro-law, because they are pro-fairness and the law on this is very clear."Her remarks are notable given that the decision could become the Supreme Court's most important elections-related case since justices essentially ended the 2000 presidential election with Bush v. Gore. If the Colorado court's decision is allowed to stand, it could have sweeping implications for the 2024 election.In a 4-3 decision, Colorado's highest court ruled that Trump was disqualified from holding public office because the US Constitution barred anyone who had "engaged in insurrection or rebellion." The judges concluded that Trump's actions before and during the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot met this threshold but stayed their opinion so Trump would have time to appeal.Trump's position is that he's never been charged with or convicted of anything related to an insurrection. His lawyers have argued that the Colorado judges are denying him due process by saying he participated in an insurrection without either of those factors. A New Mexico state judge previously booted a Republican from local office in the state based on the same constitutional provision.Since Colorado's decision, Maine's secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, has also ruled that Trump should not be on her state's primary ballot based on the insurrection provision.Kavanaugh is often portrayed as a swing vote on the US Supreme Court given its 6-3 conservative majority. Trump's three appointees to the court, including Kavanaugh, cemented that majority, but, as NBC News pointed out, they don't always side with his positions. For example, the court refused to block the House January 6 committee from obtaining Trump White House records related to the Capitol attack. Justices also threw out Texas' long-shot challenge to contest the 2020 presidential election.The Trump White House stuck with Kavanaugh after the professor Christine Blasey Ford's allegations that he sexually assaulted her decades earlier became public. Ford's accusations, which Kavanaugh has strenuously denied, turned his confirmation into the most contested fight since senators considered Clarence Thomas for the court in the 1990s.Habba's law firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.