The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear Donald Trump’s appeal of a judicial decision barring the former president from Colorado’s Republican primary ballot, taking up a politically explosive case with major implications for the 2024 presidential election.

At issue is the Colorado Supreme Court’s Dec. 19 ruling disqualifying Trump from the state’s primary ballot based on language in the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment for engaging in insurrection, involving the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol.

The justices took up the case with unusual speed. Trump, the frontrunner for his party’s nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election, filed his appeal on Wednesday. The justices indicated they would fast-track a decision, scheduling oral arguments for Feb. 8. The Colorado Republican primary is scheduled for March 5.

The state court, acting in a challenge to Trump by Republican and unaffiliated voters in Colorado, found him ineligible for the presidency under a constitutional provision that bars anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding public office, barring him from the primary ballot.

The U.S. Supreme Court did not act on a separate appeal of the state court’s decision by the Colorado Republican Party.

The Colorado case thrusts the Supreme Court – whose 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices appointed by Trump – into the unprecedented and politically fraught effort by his detractors to invalidate his campaign to reclaim the White House.

Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung praised the court’s decision to hear the case, characterizing the disqualification efforts as “part of a well-funded effort by left-wing political activists hell-bent on stopping the lawful re-election of President Trump this November, even if it means disenfranchising voters.”