Supreme Court justices appear skeptical of effort to remove Trump from a state ballot

Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court appeared skeptical Thursday of the effort to disqualify Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump from a state primary ballot because he allegedly engaged in an insurrection to try to cling to power after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.

The historic dispute comes from Colorado, where the state's Supreme Court threw Trump off Colorado's Republican primary ballot. But the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling could have national implications for Trump and his political fate.

The plaintiffs in the case argue that Trump's actions in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election automatically disqualify him from office. Trump's lawyers counter that the case against him is one of overreach.

The court's justices on Thursday, over more than two hours of oral arguments, broadly appeared to be searching for a way to keep Trump on ballots, leaving election decisions to voters.

Chief Justice John Roberts asked the Colorado plaintiffs' attorney Jason Murray to ponder the consequences of his side's case.

"I would expect that a goodly number of states will say whoever the Democratic candidate is, 'You're off the ballot.' For the Republican candidate, 'You're off the ballot,'" Roberts said. "It will come down to just a handful of states that are going to decide the presidential election. That's a pretty daunting consequence."

Justice Elena Kagan, a liberal-leaning justice, similarly asked about the national implications of the Colorado move.

Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked Murray: "What about the idea that we should think about democracy? ... Because your position has the effect of disenfranchising voters to a significant degree."

To this Murray responded: "The reason