Dan Abrams Says He’d Be ‘Absolutely Shocked’ If Supreme Court Upholds Colorado Ban of Trump from Ballot

ABC News chief legal analyst and Mediaite founder Dan Abrams said he would be “absolutely shocked” if the U.S. Supreme Court decides to uphold Colorado’s decision barring former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot when justices hear the case this week.

The Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on Feb. 8 — the same day as Nevada’s GOP presidential caucus.

“This is going to be a critical ruling,” Abrams told This Week host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.

He continued:

The question’s gonna be: What issue does the Supreme Court focus on? I’m going to be more interested in the oral arguments on — What questions are they asking? Meaning, there’s all sorts of outs here for the Supreme Court. There’s all sorts of ramps.

The question is, are they going to view it substantively? Are they going to evaluate whether there was an insurrection or not? Or are they gonna ask questions more about, is the president covered by this? Is this something where there needs to be a conviction of the crime of insurrection?

There’s all sorts of possible issues, and this is where the oral arguments get a little interesting, which is where their focus at least may give us a little hint as to what they’re particularly interested in.

Stephanopoulos asked, “Do you go in assuming that the court — a majority of the court — is looking for a way not to strike Donald Trump from the ballot?”

“Absolutely,” Abrams answered. “I have no doubt in my mind that the court will figure out a way to allow Donald Trump to remain on the ballot. By the way, that may mean even just sending it back to the lower courts, et cetera. But I would be absolutely shocked if the court upholds the Colorado ruling.”

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled in December that the Secretary of State “should not list President Trump’s name on the 2024 presidential primary ballot or count any write-in votes cast for him,” because he violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — which says no person shall “hold any office … who having previously taken an oath … shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States.

Watch the clip above via ABC News.

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