172 Republicans in Congress call on Supreme Court to keep Trump on 2024 ballots

Nearly every Republican senator and 130 GOP House members are urging the US Supreme Court to keep Donald Trump on 2024 ballots as the justices prepare to hear whether he should be disqualified under the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment.

Among the members of Congress who joined Thursday’s brief is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who previously characterised the attack on the US Capitol on January 6 as a “violent insurrection” and, in remarks on the Senate floor during Mr Trump’s impeachment for inciting it, said there is “no question” he was “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day,” when a mob assaulted the halls of Congress “in his name”.

He was among 42 Senate Republicans telling Supreme Court justices that Congress, not the courts, should decide whether to disqualify a candidate

Senators Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney – all of whom voted to convict Mr Trump for inciting an insurrection – did not join the brief.

Neither did Senators Rand Paul or Steve Daines, who submitted a separate brief supporting the former president.

Senator Todd Young, among a handful of Republican Trump critics in the senate, also did not join the brief.

The 37-page filing from Republican members of Congress questions whether Mr Trump bore any responsibility for January 6, after a Colorado Supreme Court decision at the centre of the high court’s case determined that his actions “constituted overt, voluntary, and direct participation in the insurrection.”

Last month’s historic ruling disqualified the former president from appearing on the state’s 2024 presidential ballots under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone who has sworn an oath to uphold the