Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas clashed on Thursday with a lawyer who argued in favor of Colorado removing former President Donald Trump from the primary ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, an insurrection clause dating back to the Civil War.
Jason Murray, the attorney who appeared on behalf of Colorado voters challenging Trump’s eligibility over his actions leading up to the U.S. Capitol breach on January 6, 2021, struggled to come up with instances of national candidates being disqualified by states when pressed by the justice.
Thomas asked Murray if he had any “contemporaneous examples,” which the justice qualified as being “shortly after the adoption of the 14th Amendment, where the states disqualified national candidates — not its own candidates.”
“I understand the states controlling state elections and state positions. What we are talking about here is…
