George Conway suggests Trump shouldn’t be able to appeal Colorado decision: ‘He lost, it’s over’

Conservative attorney George Conway on Wednesday suggested former President Trump won’t be successful if he appeals the Colorado Supreme Court decision disqualifying him from appearing on the state’s ballot.

“He lost, it’s over,” Conway, a prominent Trump critic, said during a panel on CNN, adding later, “He’s done in Colorado courts. He’s got no further avenue to review for those state law issues that the dissents raised.”

Conway said he previously believed the 14th Amendment argument at the center of the case was “too good to be true,” but after reading the dissenting opinions on the Colorado Supreme Court ruling, he found the dissenting justices “had nothing.”

“There’s going to be something that comes up, and right now, there’s nothing,” Conway said. “And the [U.S.] Supreme Court, if they’re going to reverse, they got to come up with something better.”

Joan Biskupic, a senior Supreme Court analyst on the panel, noted the dissents “went after the state law issues much more than the fundamental ones.”

“That’s right, and that doesn’t help Donald Trump in the Supreme Court because the Supreme Court of the United States has no business countering what state courts say about state law. The last word on issues of state law is a state Supreme Court,” Conway responded.

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that Trump is disqualified from appearing on the ballot under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause, which says that those who took oaths to support the Constitution cannot engage in a rebellion against it.

The ruling determined the clause applies to the office of the president, overturning a lower court’s decision, and the state Supreme Court said Trump intended to incite political violence and rallied supporters toward the Capitol to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election results. 

Trump’s campaign has pledged to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which Conway predicted could take up the case as soon as this week.

“I think they’ll take the case this week and set a very expedited briefing schedule, with briefs due in January and an argument probably in February, with a decision in February. That’s my guess,” Conway said, later noting the U.S. Supreme Court could turn it down or defer it and wait for the District of Columbia Circuit Court to rule.

A number of legal scholars have spoken out on the ruling, including former federal judge Michael Luttig, who argued the ruling is not  “anti-democratic,” but rather the conduct that prompted the disqualification was anti-democratic.

Meanwhile, former Attorney General Bill Barr, who has spoken out against Trump, said the ruling is “legally wrong and untenable” and will actually reinforce Trump’s narrative, calling the former president someone who “feeds on grievances.”