Supreme Court hears historic Trump 14th Amendment case: Key moments

Jason Murray, arguing the case for the Colorado voters seeking to bar Trump from the state's GOP primary ballot, opened by noting the unprecedented nature of the case.

"We are here because for the first time since the War of 1812 our nation came under violent assault," he said. "For the first time in history, a sitting president of the United States tried to disrupt the peaceful transfer of presidential power by engaging in insurrection against the Constitution."

"President Trump disqualified himself," Murray said.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pressed Mitchell on the Colorado Supreme Court's finding that the violent attempts by Trump supporters to halt the electoral count on Jan. 6 qualified as an "insurrection" under Section 3.

"Why would this not be an insurrection?" Jackson asked. "What's your argument that it's not?"

"For an insurrection there needs to an organized, concerted effort to overthrow the government of the United States through violence. And this riot that occurred ..." Mitchell began.

Jackson interrupted, "So, the point that a chaotic effort to overthrow the government is not an insurrection?"

"We didn't concede that it's an effort to overthrow the government either Justice Jackson, right?" Mitchell continued. "None of these criteria were met. This was a riot. It was not an insurrection. The events were shameful, violent, all those things. It was not an insurrection as that term is used in Section 3."

The justices, so far, are avoiding thornier questions around Trump's conduct on Jan. 6 and instead focusing on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

The provision reads: "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State ..."

Key in the debate is whether Trump is an "officer of the United States" as described by Section 3 and whether or not it is self-executing.

Mitchell, continuing to argue Congress must enforce Section 3, argued state officials can't take action even if a candidate were to openly acknowledge they participated in an insurrection against the United States.

"Because even if candidate is an admitted insurrectionist, Section 3 still allows the candidate to run for office and even win election to office and then see whether Congress lifts that disability after the election," Mitchell said.

"This happened frequently in the wake of the 14th Amendment, where confederate insurrectionists were elected to Congress, and sometimes they obtained a waiver, sometimes they did not," he continued.