Donald Trump will appear on Colorado’s presidential primary ballot after the state Republican Party appealed the court’s conclusion that the former president is ineligible to run for the country’s highest office.

“With the appeal filed, Donald Trump will be included as a candidate on Colorado’s 2024 Presidential Primary Ballot when certification occurs on January 5, 2024, unless the U.S. Supreme Court declines to take the case or otherwise affirms the Colorado Supreme Court ruling,” Secretary of State Griswold said in a statement.

The Colorado Republican Party filed the appeal on Wednesday, the potential first step to a showdown at the nation’s highest court over the meaning of a 155-year-old constitutional provision that bans from office those who “engaged in insurrection.”

Colorado’s justices had stayed their 4-3 ruling that disqualified Trump until Jan. 4, the day before the state’s primary ballots are due at the printer, or until an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is finished. Trump himself has said he still plans to appeal the ruling to the nation’s highest court, as well.

The justices said if a review is sought in the U.S. Supreme Court before their stay expires, then the hold would remain in place.

The U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was added after the Civil War to prevent former Confederates from returning to government. It says that anyone who swore an oath to “support” the constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” against it cannot hold government office.

Colorado’s justices ruled that applies to Trump in the wake of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol that sought to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. It was the first time in history that the provision was used to block a presidential contender’s campaign.

“The Colorado Supreme Court has removed the leading Republican candidate from the primary and general ballots, fundamentally changing the course of American democracy,” the party’s attorneys wrote. The filing was posted on the website of a group run by Jay Sekulow, a former attorney for Trump representing the Colorado Republican Party, who announced he was filing the appeal Wednesday. Colorado Republican Party chairman Dave Williams also confirmed the appeal was filed Wednesday.

The attorneys added, “Unless the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision is overturned, any voter will have the power to sue to disqualify any political candidate in Colorado or in any other jurisdiction that follows its lead. This will not only distort the 2024 presidential election but will also mire courts henceforth in political controversies over nebulous accusations of insurrection.”

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to take the case, either after the Colorado GOP’s appeal or Trump’s own appeal. If Trump ends up off the ballot in Colorado, it would have minimal effect on his campaign because he doesn’t need the state, which he lost by 13 percentage points in 2020, to win the Electoral College in the presidential election. But it could open the door to courts or election officials striking him from the ballot in other must-win states.

On Thursday, Maine’s Democratic secretary of state removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause, becoming the first election official to take action unilaterally as the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to decide whether Trump remains eligible to return to the White House.

The Trump campaign said it would appeal Bellows’ decision to Maine’s state courts, and Bellows suspended her ruling until that court system rules on the case.

Sean Grimsley, an attorney for the plaintiffs seeking to disqualify Trump in Colorado, said on a legal podcast last week that he hopes the nation’s highest court hurries once it accepts the case, as he expects it will.

“We obviously are going to ask for an extremely accelerated timeline because of all the reasons I’ve stated, we have a primary coming up on Super Tuesday and we need to know the answer,” Grimsley said.

More than a dozen states, including Colorado, are scheduled to hold primaries March 5 – Super Tuesday.

To date, no other court has sided with those who have filed dozens of lawsuits to disqualify Trump under Section 3, nor has any election official been willing to remove him from the ballot unilaterally without a court order.

The Colorado case was considered the one with the greatest chance of success, however, because it was filed by a Washington D.C.-based liberal group with ample legal resources. All seven of the Colorado high court justices – who split, 4-3 – were appointed by Democrats.

Several prominent conservative legal theorists are among the most vocal advocates of disqualifying Trump under Section 3. They argue the plain meaning of the constitutional language bars him from running again, just as clearly as if he didn’t meet the document’s minimum age of 35 for the presidency.

The half-dozen plaintiffs in the Colorado case are all Republican or unaffiliated voters.

Trump has been scathing about the cases, calling them “election interference.” He continued that on Wednesday as he cheered a ruling earlier that day by the Michigan Supreme Court leaving him on the ballot, at least for the primary, in that state.

“The Colorado people have embarrassed our nation with what they did,” Trump said on Sean Hannity’s radio show.