The US supreme court will hear Donald Trump’s appeal of the Colorado ruling that said he should be removed from the state ballot under the 14th amendment to the US constitution, for inciting an insurrection.

The Colorado supreme court ruled against Trump on 19 December but stayed the ruling until 4 January, shortly before the deadline for determining the ballot for the Republican primary in the western state.

The court-imposed deadline also falls two days before the third anniversary of the deadly January 6 attack on Congress by supporters whom Trump told to “fight like hell” to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

Prominent legal scholars including Laurence Tribe of Harvard and the retired conservative judge J Michael Luttig have said Trump should be disqualified from seeking the presidency under section three of the 14th amendment, which was written after the civil war to apply to former Confederates but which has rarely been used.

Other voices, including conservative lawyers and professors and all of Trump’s major opponents for the Republican presidential nomination, have questioned whether section 3 applies to the presidency and have claimed the ruling is anti-democratic, because only voters should decide Trump’s fitness for office.

The Colorado primary is set to take place on 5 March.

Despite facing 91 criminal charges under four indictments and assorted civil threats, Trump leads Republican polling by vast margins.