Remember, this is all out of Colorado, where we represent the Colorado Republican Party. And the oral argument will be on Thursday before the US Supreme Court. This is the opening brief that we filed at the Supreme Court. We then filed the reply brief today. The briefing is done. 84 briefs in this case. Count that again, 84 briefs in the case. I’ve done a lot of Supreme Court cases.

I think that is the most I’ve ever seen in any case we’ve been involved in, especially for a case that’s got it this quick. It wasn’t like this was a case that was percolating for years. Like most are, the consequences of the case are sobering and serious. And so serious that what it means at the end of the day here is whether a candidate can stay on the ballot when the state party has said, that’s who we want, or this group of people we want on the ballot, and you’ve got a secretary of state simply saying, well, no, we’re not going to do that.

So it can’t go that way. So you could have a plethora of different positions all over the United States, and you imagine the election chaos that would ensue and who would be the legitimate president at that point. I didn’t see anything on the left supporting Donald Trump. No. There was one brief that was filed by one of the Amiki that was, I think, left of center that said this idea of unilaterally taking people off the ballot violates your right of association, kind of the free speech argument.

So let me put it back on the screen for you. This is the opening brief. After they granted review. We already filed briefs on that. So this was the first merit briefs. It’s red. Andy and I were talking about that. We haven’t filed a red one in a long time. But there we are. That’s a red one, and that’s our respondents brief. Then we filed today with the Supreme Court.

The reply brief, which we believe the color, I think on that one is orange, but we haven’t gotten it back from the printer yet. You actually print these briefs and it’s been filed. But I think it’s fair to say, andy and I want to get your impression on now that we’ve gone through all the briefs. Look, take nothing for granted here, because there were some good briefs on the other side and there were, there’s arguments on the other side.

So this is a case of first impression. Let’s define what that means for people. First impression means this court has never heard anything like it before. It’s the first time that the supreme Court has taken up the issue of a potential presidential candidate being taken off the ballot by a state through the unilateral action of the secretary of state of that jurisdiction. And the idea that that person could do this themselves, to me, seems to be.

That seems to be, to me, the crux of this. It cannot be that way. Or else a secretary of state in the south could have said to Ulysses S. Grant, he was the big general for the union. Let’s not recognize him on the ballot because we think he was an insurrectionist. Well, that’s exactly right, Jay. I mean, you cannot allow 50 jurisdictions in the District of Columbia, secretaries of state, or administrative officials in the elections department to make a decision who’s going to be on the ballot or not.

You would have absolute national chaos. You start looking for an opinion from February 18. When is Super Tuesday, March 5? Between February 18 and the end of the month. Yeah, because I think that’s where a lot of people would. You’re going to have this massive voters that are not going to have the interplay that the other voters have had with the candidates. What I mean is, in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, like, these people have seen President Trump, he’s been a lot of events, or Nikki Haley, it’s been a lot of events, and there has not been much going on the Democrat side.

So the republican side has been the place for any political action, and it’s down to two candidates. But when you get to March 5 in Super Tuesday, it’s not about that. Those states are not states. Yeah, you might be in a big enough city that had a rally or one of the big enough republican strongholds that had a rally, but likely you didn’t have, like, a personal interaction with the person running for president.

So what the Supreme Court says is going to be important. People don’t want to waste their vote on a candidate if it’s not going to be counted. And that’s why I think the way they come out with the decisions can be important, because we have this argument, which I think is textually correct, that it only applies to this disqualification clause, holding office, because that disqualification disability can be removed by two thirds of the Congress.

They can vote two thirds and say no, even though he’s founded that we’re going to let him serve or her serve. They could say, hey, this only applies to holding office. This is running for office. It doesn’t apply. That’s right. Maybe you get nine on that. That would be an easy way to do it. Yeah. Because you would simply say he can run for office, he can seek office, but holding office is another matter.

That, of course, just pushes the can down the road. And it could make it worse and it could make it worse, but it could look like another election interference thing. See, if things file today, you’ll be able to see. And then after that, it turns the oral argument on Thursday. And then we wait. Likely, we aren’t going to be waiting like we usually would for the court, you know, months away from now because weeks, not months.

Too many people are voting already. People have already voted on this, not just, by the way, in Iowa, New Hampshire, but early voting going on for some of the Super Tuesday states. Definitely in South Carolina. That probably starts soon. And that is like we talk about, determinative. Yes, Super Tuesday will likely be the end of the republican primary. Okay, so here’s what you’ve got. The briefs are submitted as of today.

That means all 84 briefs. Let me give you that number again. 84 briefs have been filed in this case. We went through every single one of them when we crafted our reply brief. Put that on the screen so people see what that is. This is the reply brief. The first brief we filed, of course, was our opening brief. And it’s a red brief. And there it is. So a lot of paperwork because the briefing here is the absolutely most important part.

On the eigth, there’s going to be an oral argument. It’s going to be 80 minutes. So you’re going to have, the secretary of state is given a few minutes to argue. The lawyers representing the electors will have their time to argue. And then Jordan, the lawyer that’s representing President Trump, will make an argument as well. But let me tell you this, the briefing is where it’s at in these cases.

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