James Devaney/GC Images; Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images
- One of Donald Trump's attorneys singled out Justice Brett Kavanaugh as the high court weighs a potentially major case.
- Trump has asked the court to hear his appeal to a Colorado decision that booted him off of the primary ballot.
- The attorney said Kavanaugh will "step up."
Alina Habba, one of Donald Trump's attorneys, called attention to Justice Brett Kavanaugh as the Supreme Court considers the former president's appeal of Colorado's decision to kick him off the Republican presidential primary ballot.
"I think it should be a slam dunk in the Supreme Court, I have faith in them," Habba told Fox News host Sean Hannity Thursday evening. "You know people like, uh, Kavanaugh, who the president fought for, who the president went through hell to get into place, he'll step up."
Habba added that the justices would step up, "not because they are pro-Trump but because they are pro-law, because they are pro-fairness and the law on this is very clear."
Her remarks are notable given that the decision could become the Supreme Court's most important elections-related case since justices essentially ended the 2000 presidential election with Bush v. Gore. If the Colorado court's decision is allowed to stand, it could have sweeping implications for the 2024 election.
In a 4-3 decision, Colorado's highest court ruled that Trump was disqualified from holding public office because the US Constitution bars anyone who has "engaged in insurrection or rebellion." The judges concluded that Trump's actions before and during the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot met this threshold but they stayed their opinion so Trump would have time to appeal.
Trump's position is that he has never been charged let alone convicted of anything related to an insurrection. His lawyers have argued that the Colorado judges are denying him due process by stating he participated in an insurrection when neither of those factors have been met. A New Mexico state judge previously booted a Republican from local office in the state based on the same US constitutional provision.
Since Colorado's decision, Maine's Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has also ruled that Trump should not be on her state's primary ballot based on the insurrection provision.
Kavanaugh is often portrayed as a potential swing vote on the US Supreme Court given its current 6-3 conservative majority. Trump's three appointees to the court, including Kavanaugh, cemented that majority but as NBC News pointed out it's far from a given that they always side with his positions. For example, the court refused to block the House January 6 committee from obtaining Trump White House records related to the Capitol attack. Justices also threw out Texas' long-shot challenge to contest the 2020 presidential election.
The Trump White House stuck with Kavanaugh after Christine Blasey Ford's allegations that he sexually assaulted her decades earlier became public. Ford's accusations, which Kavanaugh has strenuously denied, turned his confirmation into the most contested fight since senators considered Justice Clarence Thomas in the 1990s.
Habba's law firm did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.