Former President Donald Trump’s political allies urged the Supreme Court on Thursday not to allow states to decide who runs for federal office.

In December, the Colorado Supreme Court struck Trump from the ballot after finding that he “engaged in” insurrection in a manner prohibited by the 14th Amendment’s disqualification cause. The Maine Secretary of State subsequently followed suit under the same provision.

Trump’s former longtime personal attorney Jay Sekulow, now representing the Colorado Republican State Central Committee in a fight to restore the former president to the ballot, argues that the amendment was intended to “limit” state power, making the rulings an “upside down” execution of constitutional authority.

“A self-executing Section Three, moreover, empowers each of the 50 states to decide for themselves who is disqualified, a recipe for electoral chaos perfectly illustrated by this case and by Maine’s recent decision to disqualify President Trump,” the 19-page brief states.

The fight to oust Trump from the ballot in Colorado was spearheaded by four Republican voters, led by Norma Anderson, and two unaffiliated voters, who are represented by the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

In the litigation, Trump and his legal adversaries agree on little, except that the Supreme Court should hear the controversy.

“This case is of utmost national importance,” Anderson’s lawyers wrote in their reply to the petition, which Trump’s allies quoted as grounds for agreement. “And given the upcoming presidential primary schedule, there is no time to wait for the issues to percolate further.”

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