On Challenge to Trump, Oregon Will Wait for Supreme Court

Oregon will not follow the lead of Colorado and Maine and bar Donald Trump from its primary ballot for now. Without ruling on the merits of a challenge to the former president’s candidacy, the state Supreme Court said Friday it will wait for the US Supreme Court to make its decision on the matter, CNN reports. That did not please Free Speech for People, the advocacy group that filed a lawsuit on behalf of five voters seeking Trump’s removal. “Waiting until the US Supreme Court issues its order only compresses the time that the Oregon Supreme Court may have to resolve the issues that may remain,” the group said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Trump campaign approved. “President Trump urges the swift dismissal of all remaining, bad-faith, election interference 14th Amendment ballot challenges,” he said. Like challenges elsewhere, Oregon’s centered on the wording of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which says government officials who engage in insurrection after taking an oath to uphold the Constitution are disqualified from office. The Oregon suit was filed after Secretary of State Lavonne Griffin-Valade said she lacks the authority to keep Trump off a primary ballot, only a general election ballot, per CBS News.

The Oregon court said the US Supreme Court’s ruling “may resolve one or more contentions” in the voters’ suit. Oregon’s chief justice wrote that the challengers can file a new lawsuit if the US Supreme Court’s ruling doesn’t address all of their arguments, per the New York Times. Oregon’s primary is May 21, and election officials say the names on the ballot must be set by March 21. Oral arguments in a case involving Colorado’s primary ballot are scheduled in Washington for Feb. 8. (Read more Donald Trump 2024 stories.)