Former US President Donald Trump is reportedly growing nervous that the US Supreme Court - of which three justices were appointed during his term in office - could side against him in the fight over his disqualification from the Colorado 2024 primary ballot.
According to a recent report, Trump has privately expressed that he is concerned the conservative justices will rule against him out of fear of being viewed as “political" if they were to rule in his favor.
In an interview with a US news channel, Alina Habba, Trump’s attorney, echoed those same fears more openly.
"That's a concern that he's voiced to me, he's voiced to everybody publicly, not privately. And I can tell you that his concern is a valid one," Habba said. “Republicans are conservative, they get nervous.”
The high court grew much more conservative under the Trump administration, with the former president having appointed three conservative justices - Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett - to the bench.
“They - unfortunately - sometimes shy away from being pro-Trump because they feel that even if the law is on our side, they may appear to be swayed much like the Democratic side would do. So they’re trying to look neutral,” she added.
This week, Trump’s legal team asked the Supreme Court to intervene in Colorado’s decision to ban him from the primary ballot under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause. The court responded on Friday, revealing that it would hear oral arguments on the case on February 8.
Shenna Bellows, Maine’s secretary of state, also declared Trump ineligible for the state’s primary ballot, citing the same clause in her 34-page decision. Trump’s challenge to Bellows’ decision will be filed in a state court, as opposed to the Colorado decision which was appealed to the Supreme Court.
While Trump’s legal team battles the decision made in Maine and Colorado, they are also working on four criminal indictments in four different states.