The Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that states cannot remove former U.S President, Donald Trump from the 2024 election ballot.
The court ruled that Trump was wrongly removed from Colorado’s primary ballot last year, clearing the way for Trump to appear on the ballot in all 50 states.
The supreme court ruling allows Trump to remain on Colorado’s presidential ballot, overturning a Colorado court ruling that said that he was ineligible to run for office because of his role in the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack.
The Colorado decision was a novel interpretation of section 3 of the 14th amendment, which bars insurrectionists from holding office.
Trump appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the state’s decision would disenfranchise millions of voters and could plunge the electoral process into disarray if other states followed suit.
The Supreme Court’s unsigned opinion read, “We conclude that States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office but states have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency.”
The court stated that Congress had to enact the procedures for disqualification under Section 3.
The Supreme Court did not weigh in on whether Trump had engaged in an insurrection.
“State-by-state resolution of the question whether Section 3 bars a particular candidate for President from serving would be quite unlikely to yield a uniform answer consistent with the basic principle that the President … represent[s] all the voters in the Nation,” the court added.
While all nine justices agreed that Trump should be on the ballot, there was sharp disagreement from the three liberal members of the court.
In their unanimous decision, the Justices also rejected Trump’s argument that the President is not covered by Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, designed to prevent Confederates from returning to power.
“President Trump asks us to hold that Section 3 disqualifies every oath-breaking insurrectionist except the most powerful one,” the Supreme Court wrote.
It added, “Both results are inconsistent with the plain language and history of Section 3.”
The court ruling came a day before Colorado’s presidential primary, which is slated for Tuesday, March 5, 2024.
Trump had been allowed to appear on the ballot while the case was pending.
Maine and a judge in Illinois had also excluded Trump from the ballot – decisions that are now likely to quickly be reversed.
Trump And Republican Allies Laud Supreme Court Ruling
Trump posted on his social media platform that the ruling marked a “BIG WIN FOR AMERICA!!!”
Trump’s many Republican allies in Congress also welcomed the supreme court’s ruling.
Speaker of the U.S House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, said, “Today, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed what we all knew: the Colorado Supreme Court engaged in a purely partisan attack against the frontrunner for the Republican presidential primary.”
“States engaging in the same activist, undemocratic behaviors should take notice and leave it to the American people to decide who will be President,” Johnson added.
In addition, New York Congresswoman, Elise Stefanik, noted, “Today’s unanimous 9-0 Supreme Court decision is a victory for the American people, the Constitution, and our Republic.”
“As I have said since the start, extreme Democrats will shred the Constitution in order to prevent the American people from exercising their constitutional right to vote for President Donald Trump.
“This dangerous attempt by the radical Left to suppress votes was fundamentally unAmerican and why I was proud to sign on to the amicus brief to the Supreme Court. We the people decide elections, not unelected radical leftists.”
Elise Stefanik
Finally, Ohio Congressman and chair of the House judiciary committee, Jim Jordan, posted, “Big win for common sense and democracy!”
However, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who controls the state’s ballot access, wrote on social media that she is “disappointed” in the court’s decision to not allow states to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment for federal candidates.
“Colorado should be able to bar oath-breaking insurrections from our ballot,” she asserted.
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