In his dissenting opinion this month, Colorado Justice Carlos Samour worried about what his colleagues’ decision to disqualify Donald Trump from the presidential ballot means for the country’s grand experiment in democracy.

In particular, Samour raised the prospect of the states, given the nuances of their own election laws, ruling disparately on the question of Trump’s eligibility.

“Because most other states don’t have the Election Code provisions we do, they won’t be able to enforce Section Three,” Samour wrote, referring to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was added after the Civil War to prevent former Confederates from holding elected offices and which states that anyone who swore an oath to “support” the constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” against it cannot hold government office.  

“That, in turn, will inevitably lead to the disqualification of President Trump from the presidential primary ballot in less than all fifty states, thereby risking chaos in our country,” Samour wrote. “This can’t possibly be the outcome the framers intended.”

Samour’s fear is taking shape in real time.

Two states – Colorado and Maine – have removed Trump from their primary ballots, and several others are considering whether he engaged in insurrection during or leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the nation’s Capitol and is, thereby, barred from running for the presidency in 2024.

Indeed, the states’ competing actions have raised the stakes, particularly because their election officials face swiftly approaching deadlines to decide which candidates will appear on their ballots.

The prevailing sentiment in Colorado and elsewhere is these developments compound the pressure on the U.S. Supreme Court to act – and to do so swiftly – in order to offer clarity Trump and the country.   

“(We) are urging the Supreme Court to swiftly grant and resolve this case as we are just weeks from the first ballots being cast in the 2024 presidential election,” the lawyers for the Colorado Republican Party said in appealing the state supreme court’s decision.  

The six Coloradans who sued to disqualify Trump also agree on the need for a swift resolution.

“This case involves issues of exceptional national importance,” they wrote to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the country’s justices to expedite their review of the Colorado case. 

That expedited decision is warranted, they said, so “that the important question of Trump’s eligibility can be resolved by this Court before most primary voters cast their ballots.”

Colorado’s justices became the first by any state supreme court to address head-on the substantive arguments of Trump’s – or any presidential candidate’s – eligibility, given the allegations that Trump engaged in an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

More than 30 states have seen similar lawsuits – which have either been dismissed or are still pending – to keep Trump off the ballot. The most formidable challenges, thus far, have been filed by such as the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and Free Speech for People.

Michigan and Minnesota have rejected the lawsuits. Meanwhile, Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows removed Trump from the ballot on Wednesday.

Both Colorado and Maine’s actions came with an automatic hold that will likely remain in place until the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to take up the appeal from Colorado. Their decision to keep or kick Trump from a state primary ballot would effectively end the ongoing or pending challenges against the former president across the country.

In the meantime, some legal experts now suspect that the next state Supreme Court to weigh on a 14th Amendment lawsuit could be in Oregon. Free Speech for People sued the Democratic secretary of state earlier this month for deciding to keep Trump on Oregon’s upcoming primary ballot.

“The next place to watch for action in addition to appealing out from Colorado and in Maine: the Oregon Supreme Court,” Anthony Michael Kreis posted on X, the social media formerly known as Twitter.

Free Speech for People’s legal director Ron Fein has said that, while the highest court “may have the final word,” his group intends to challenge Democratic Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade’s decision to keep Trump on the primary ballot there.

In a Dec. 8 petition, Fein’s group asked the state Supreme Court to weigh the matter before the primary ballots there are finalized. It is not immediately clear when the Oregon Supreme Court will act on this petition. 

Meanwhile, Trump survived another effort to remove him from the primary ballot in Wisconsin on Thursday after officials there declined to review a complaint attempting to remove him under the 14th Amendment.

The Associated Press and Michael Karlik contributed to this article.