The federal Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider the case concerning whether and whether Donald Trump has the right to run for president in 10 months, following the decision of the justice in the state of Colorado late last month that banned the former president to be on the Republican ballot when the intra-party vote for their nominee is held there in March.

Directly involved in this — highly political — case, the Supreme Court, where conservatives have a clear majority (6-3), announced that it would consider it on February 8.

Until the highest institution of American justice decides, the ballots will have to include the name of Donald Trump in both Colorado and Maine, another state where the authorities made a similar decision.

The tycoon, an undisputed favorite in the Republican caucus ahead of the November election, appealed to the Supreme Court — to which he personally appointed three members during his tenure — to rule on the issue.

On December 19th, the Colorado Supreme Court and then, on December 28th, the Maine Secretary of the Interior decided to bar Donald Trump from running on the GOP primary. These decisions were characterized as historic.

In both cases, the argument behind the decisions is that the billionaire is unfit for the top office because he was involved in “mutiny” when his followers’ bloody attack on the federal Capitol took place on January 6, 2021, under Article 3 of 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.

The burning question

The 14th amendment to the US Constitution was adopted in 1868; at the time, the Confederate supporters, the Southerners who were defeated in the civil war of secession (1861-1865), were targeted to exclude from public office those who had sworn to defend the Constitution, they committed “mutiny” or “rebellion.”

But is the amendment applicable in the case of Donald Trump? This is the burning question that the federal Supreme Court is called upon to decide.

According to the argument of Donald Trump and his team of lawyers, if the decision made by the justice in Colorado is implemented, “it will mark the first time in the history of the United States that the judicial system prevents voters from casting their ballots for a major candidate party for the presidency”.

According to them, only Congress is competent to make decisions on the issue.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers also argued that Article 3 of the 14th Amendment did not apply in his case, since he was still president on January 6, 2021, and that the events of that day were not a “rebellion” and the tycoon was “on none participated in a rebellion.”

Hundreds of supporters of Donald Trump had then attacked the federal Capitol, temple of American democracy, to prevent the formal ratification in Congress of the victory of his opponent Joe Biden in the presidential elections of November 2020.

The Republican ex-president and his most passionate supporters continue to claim, without presenting any evidence, that he was the winner of the 2020 presidential election.