Ramaswamy backs Trump before Supreme Court in 14th Amendment case

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Thursday filed a brief backing former President Trump as the Supreme Court decides whether he can be disqualified from the ballot under the 14th Amendment.

“The conclusion is inescapable: President Trump’s political opponents have sought to disqualify him from the ballot in multiple states because they fear they cannot beat him in a free and fair election,” Ramaswamy’s lawyers wrote to the justices in a friend-of-the-court brief.

“Needless to say, the distress of competing against a formidable opponent cannot justify disqualification under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. And the consequences of affirming the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision will extend far beyond the dispute over President Trump’s eligibility,” they continued.

The U.S. Supreme Court last week agreed to review the decision in Colorado, which ruled Trump was disqualified from the state’s primary ballot because of his actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. The decision is currently on hold.

The case thrusts the high court’s justices into a dispute that could upend the presidential election by sparking Trump’s removal from the ballot in states across the country. 

They are hearing the case at lightning speed, scheduling oral arguments for Feb. 8, though it remains to be seen whether the justices will issue a decision before Super Tuesday.

Ramaswamy’s brief warns the justices that enabling Trump’s disqualification would “warp incentives” for state decision-makers, taking aim at the Maine secretary of state’s array of media appearances after similarly disqualifying Trump.

“For secretaries of state and state supreme court justices, the path to national notoriety will be illuminated: To enhance your credibility among co-partisans, simply concoct a reason to declare a disfavored presidential candidate of the opposing party ineligible to run for office,” Ramaswamy’s lawyers wrote in their brief. 

“For voters, the message will be equally clear: Scour the records of disfavored candidates for speeches containing martial rhetoric, or even policies that had unintended consequences, and then file challenges under Section 3. The number of Section 3 complaints will proliferate, as will the number of divergent outcomes.”

During the campaign, Ramaswamy has distinguished himself as arguably the most sympathetic among the GOP primary field to Trump’s legal woes.

He appeared outside the courthouse when Trump was arraigned on federal charges of conspiring to subvert the 2020 election results in Washington, D.C., and has pledged, if elected, to pardon the former president on the federal charges he faces.

Ramaswamy also promised to remove himself from the Colorado and Maine ballots after the decisions disqualifying Trump in the states, and he called on his fellow primary candidates to do the same.