WASHINGTON (CN) — A group of Senate Republicans on Thursday unveiled a bill that would cement the Supreme Court as the final arbiter of whether a presidential candidate can be removed from the ballot on constitutional grounds.
The measure, sponsored by Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin and North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, comes after two states struck former President Donald Trump from their primary election ballots, citing the insurrection clause of the Constitution's 14th Amendment.
The Colorado Supreme Court in December ruled that the insurrection clause, which bars anyone who has “engaged in insurrection” against the U.S. government from holding elected office without congressional approval, disqualifies the GOP frontrunner, pointing to his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows followed suit days later.
Now, Senate Republicans — who have sharply condemned the move to disqualify former President Trump — have said that interpreting the insurrection clause and other constitutional provisions should be left to federal courts and ultimately the Supreme Court.
“Presidential elections are determined by the American people, not liberal political activists with a grudge,” Mullin said in a statement Thursday. “Right now, states like Colorado and Maine are working overtime to undermine American voters and kick President Donald Trump off the ballot.”
If made law, the GOP legislation would clarify federal law to block state courts and officials from adjudicating “disputes or questions of ballot eligibility” related to the Constitution’s insurrection clause.
Instead, the measure said, such challenges to a candidate’s qualifications should be investigated first by a panel of judges on a federal district court, which would “make findings of fact” and send them to the Supreme Court. The high court would “consider the matter on an expedited basis before issuing a ruling on the findings of law,” the bill read.
The legislation would also strip federal funds for election administration from states where officials unilaterally declare a presidential candidate ineligible for office using the insurrection clause.
Tillis said in a statement Thursday framed his bill as a response to what he called “left-wing activists” who “make a mockery of our political system by scheming with partisan state officials and pressuring judges to remove [former President Trump] from the ballot.”
“This is an effort to silence Americans [and] their votes,” Florida Senator Rick Scott wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “It must be stopped.”
Despite Republicans’ insistence, it’s unlikely that the proposed measure would clear the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Trump, meanwhile, filed a suit last week challenging his disqualification from Maine’s primary election. The former president accused Secretary of State Bellows of being “a biased decisionmaker” and that she “failed to provide lawful due process.”
According to the Pine Tree State’s election laws, the secretary of state can rule on a candidate’s ballot eligibility.
Despite that, the Republican frontrunner’s legal team also argued that state officials have no authority to enforce the Constitution’s insurrection clause.
Other states, including Michigan and Minnesota, have refused to disqualify Trump from their primary ballots. Voters in Illinois last week petitioned the state’s elections board to strike the former president from their own primary election.
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