Republicans and Democrats in Colorado expectedly hewed along partisan lines following Thursday’s oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, which is weighing whether former president Donald Trump should be disqualified from the state ballot for allegedly engaging in an “insurrection” that culminated in the Jan. 6 attack on Congress.     

“It would be a terrible mistake and precedent to ban former President Trump — or any candidate — from the ballot in this country,” U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, a Republican, said on Twitter. “Voters deserve to decide who they want to support to be president in January 2025.”

From the opposite side of the ideological aisle, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold called Jan. 6 “one of the darkest days in our nation’s history” and said Trump “incited an insurrection and attempted to steal the presidency from the American people.”

“I hope the U.S. Supreme Court upholds Colorado’s constitutional right to bar oath-breaking insurrections from our presidential primary ballot. Our nation deserves to know whether an insurrectionist may hold the country’s highest office,” said Griswold.

America’s justices heard arguments over whether Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to disqualify Trump from the state ballot should stand.

The state court’s decision hinges on several crucial conclusions — notably that the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol constituted an “insurrection,” that the former president “engaged in” that act, and his speech was “not protected” by the First Amendment.

In reaching these conclusions, the majority of Colorado’s justices rejected Trump’s argument that the district court’s proceedings failed to provide the time necessary to litigate such a complex case, insisting the district court “took many steps to address the complexities of the case.”

But it’s precisely this point that vexed Colorado’s justices who dissented from the majority, arguing that the plaintiff’s claims “cannot be squared” with the state’s own timelines for adjudicating election cases. They also insisted that Trump was not afforded due process. 

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.

On the social media platform X, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert called the case against Trump “unreal.”  

“The fact that we are having a hearing on whether or not a former president of the United States will be allowed on a ballot is just unreal,” she said. “Think of where we are as a country right now.”

She added: “Our Founding Fathers would be so ashamed of what we’ve become. It’s incumbent upon us to fight back against this madness and re-elect President Trump in November. We cannot let their tactics win!”

In a statement, Attorney General Phil Weiser focused on the more technical aspect of the case, arguing that Colorado has the authority to decide election cases that deal with questions of eligibility. 

“Under the U.S. Constitution, the states are entrusted with conducting presidential primary elections at the direction of their state legislatures. For more than 130 years, the Colorado General Assembly has authorized our state courts to resolve election challenges, including challenges over access to the ballot,” Weiser said. “In this ballot disqualification case, the Colorado courts did just that. At the U.S. Supreme Court, we are defending our state election laws and our process for removing ineligible candidates from the ballot.”

Weiser added: “The U.S. Supreme Court should uphold Colorado’s election laws and our state’s right to exclude from the ballot any candidate who is ineligible for the office.”

Reporter Michael Karlik contributed to this article.